Page 9 - DMEA Week 31 2022
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DMEA REFINING DMEA
Natref back online as
feedstock deliveries resume
AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Sasol and its French partner support. SAPIA has been working with the gov-
TotalEnergies this week announced that they ernment to find a resolution to issues with fund-
have restarted their joint venture (JV) at Sasol- ing the upgrade of six refineries in the country to
burg following the resumption of feedstock allow them to produce cleaner fuels.
deliveries. It warned in January that refiners would be
Delayed crude oil deliveries caused the JV to unlikely to carry out nearly $4bn worth of com-
close the 107,000 barrel per day (bpd) National bined overhaul work without government sup-
Petroleum Refiners of South Africa (Natref) port or permission to raise fuel prices.
unit, which is one of only two operational refin- Glencore’s 100,000 bpd Astron Refinery in
eries in the country, with closures following Cape Town was taken out of commission fol-
the announcement of the Clean Fuels 2 (CF2) lowing a mid-2020 explosion, while in April
legislation, which will mandate the use of ultra- 2021, Engen Petroleum, a subsidiary of Malay-
low-sulphur gasoline and diesel products when sia’s state-owned Petronas, said it would turn its
it comes into effect. 120,000 bpd refinery in Durban into an import
Sasol told Bloomberg this week that while terminal following years of losses and a fire.
the plant remains under force majeure, it is back Meanwhile, various factors have conspired to
“online and production ramp-up is in progress”. significantly reduce usability and utilisation rates
The company previously said that invest- at NOC PetroSA’s 45,000 bpd Mossel Bay gas-
ments required to make Natref comply with new to-liquids (GTL) facility over the past two years.
industry regulations would be “sub-economical” This left Natref, Sasol’s 160,000 bpd Secunda
and the partners are expected to make a call on coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant and UK-based BP
the plant’s fate later this year, with sale, closure or and Shell’s 180,000 bpd Sapref unit as the coun-
conversion for storage or blending all said to be try’s only remaining functional refineries.
under consideration. In March, though, operations were sus-
However, the South African government pended at Sapref, with the partners saying they
last week pushed back the CF2 deadline from could not commit to any further expenditures
2023 to 2027. While Sasol said it welcomed this “until decisions about the future of the plant have
decision, it said it would continue to “evaluate been made – including a possible change of own-
options” for the facility. ership.” Sapref produces gasoline, diesel, marine
The legislation back-track follows warnings fuel, bitumen, base oils and paraffin waxes.
from the South African Petroleum Industry The resumption of operations at Natref will
Association (SAPIA) that the new legislation soon be joined by the return to service of the
could make the country’s remaining refiner- Astron plant (by year-end) following around two
ies obsolete within two years without financial years of rehabilitation work.
Week 31 04•August•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
