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Astron’s Cape Town refinery

to resume production soon

SOUTH AFRICA GLENCORE-OWNED company Astron petroleum products are acute. However, bring-
Energy reported on February 1 that it is gearing ing the refinery back online will allow the coun-
up to re-commission its 100,000 barrel per day try to ease its logistical problems and lessen its
(bpd) Cape Town refinery. dependence on foreign fuel imports.
Regarding the Milnerton plant, Astron said: Glencore’s CEO Gary Nagle said in 2022
“We are in the final steps of a safe full restart ... regarding reopening the facility: “It’s not just a
and plan to fully recommence the production rebuild to what we had before. We’ve actually
of refined products for supply into the Western improved the refinery. We will be able to pro-
Cape and the wider South African regions in the duce additional products. We’ve changed the
coming weeks.” cost base. And we believe that, certainly, we’ll
Commitments to reopen the facility lie at bring on that refinery, it will be profitable.”
odds with current trends in South Africa, where Nagle also suggested the refinery would
due to incoming clean energy regulations, oil eventually be able to produce fuel in line with
and gas refineries are opting to shut down rather South Africa’s incoming clean fuel legislation,
than invest in refurbishment and upgrades. saying: “We are bringing it back on, and we
The refinery had been closed since 2020, believe there is a commercial case to do that.” ™
when a deadly fire broke out, causing extensive
damage and killing two engineers in the process.
Glencore had first acquired the refinery in 2019
as part of a $1bn deal with Chevron and had
recently completed a $400mn upgrade to the
facility in order to allow it to produce low-sul-
phur fuel.
Astron spokesperson Suzanne Pullinger said
in 2022 that “the refinery forms a significant part
of the Astron Energy business, and it remains
our intention to safely restart by the end of Q4
this year ... with a key focus on maximising
safety for the restart and beyond.”
South Africa, which has been wrestling with
issues around supply of fuels, will see some
benefits from the restart. With most refining
slates largely out of commission, shortages of The Cape Town oil refinery has been off line since 2020 (Photo: Astron)

TotalEnergies to assess security situation

before restarting Mozambique LNG project

MOZAMBIQUE TOTALENERGIES (France) is taking steps to and humanitarian activist, one of the founders
assess security and humanitarian conditions in of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who cur-
Cabo Delgado, the northernmost province of rently serves as head of Action Against Hunger
Mozambique, ahead of making a decision on – with leading an independent mission to eval-
whether to restart work on a $20bn LNG project. uate the situation.
According to a company statement, TotalEn- The mission will assess humanitarian con-
ergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné met with Mozam- ditions in Cabo Delgado, evaluate the Mozam-
bican President Filipe Nyusi in Cabo Delgado bique LNG consortium’s actions and determine
last week to discuss the matter. whether any additional steps should be taken
During the visit, Pouyanné said he had on behalf of the province’s residents, the CEO
tasked Jean-Christophe Rufin – a human rights reported.

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