Page 9 - AfrOil Week 29 2022

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

Libya produced nearly 1.2mn barrels per day Mustafa Sanalla with Farhat Bengdara, a former
(bpd) of oil on average in 2021. But in recent governor of the central bank. Sanalla has refused
months, output levels have plunged due to con- to recognise Dbeibah’s appointment of a new
tinued closures at oil production sites and ter- head and has continued to lead NOC.
minals, as well as frequent power supply cuts. Dbeibah himself faces increasing political
Many of these closures stem from disputes over challenges. In March, the eastern-based parlia-
oil revenues, which have in turn fueled fierce ment in Tobruk appointed a rival administration
power struggles between eastern and western under Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha, arguing
clans over NOC, which provides most of Libya’s that Dbeibah’s mandate had expired when an
revenues. UN-brokered deadline for elections fell last
One of those struggles came to the fore- December. However, Dbeibah has postponed
front last week, when Prime Minister Dbeibah the vote indefinitely and has refused to hand
replaced the company’s long-serving leader over power. ™

Delayed crude deliveries force

temporary closure of Natref

SOUTH AFRICA SASOL, South Africa’s largest fuel producer, has in December 2020 and is slated to be converted
declared force majeure on petroleum product into a terminal, and the Cape Town refinery, a
deliveries after shutting down the Natref refin- 100,000-bpd plant owned by Glencore (UK/
ery due to late crude oil deliveries. Switzerland), was halted after an explosion in
The company on July 15 suspended opera- July 2020.
tions at the 108,000-barrel per day (bpd) Natref Meanwhile, the gas-to-liquids (GTL) syn-
plant, which it jointly owns with TotalEnergies thfuels plant that government-owned PetroSA
(France). operates in Mossel Bay has been idle since 2020
“Sasol Oil will not be in a position to fully due to a lack of feedstock.
meet its commitments on the supply of all petro- Currently, the only domestic plant still fully
leum products from July 2022,” the firm said in operational is Sasol’s coal-to-liquids (CTL) syn-
a statement. thfuels plant in Secunda. This facility accounts
The temporary closure means that all local for about a fifth of South Africa’s fuel production
refineries in Africa’s most developed nation are capacity.
now idle. As a result of the stoppages, Bloomberg
Sapref, a 180,000-bpd plant owned jointly noted, the country’s petroleum product imports
by subsidiaries of UK-based Shell and BP, was are sure to increase. However, the surge may be
taken offline earlier this year ahead of a planned temporary. Glencore’s Cape Town refinery is
sale and then damaged in a flood in April. The expected to resume operations in the second
120,000-bpd Engen plant was damaged by fire half of 2022.

Storage tanks at Natref (Photo: TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa)

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