By: Natasha Archary
South Africa’s largest fuel producer, Sasol, declared a Force Majeure on petroleum products as a result of delays in the arrival of crude oil shipments.
The Sasol outage has meant that all the country’s oil refineries has had to shutdown, running the risk of fuel shortages and further spikes in the costs of petrol.
This despite the Energy Department saying it’s not concerned over the country running out of petrol or diesel but the availability of jet fuel.
Meanwhile, Sasol Oil said the company, “will not be in a position to fully meet its commitments on the supply of all petroleum products from July 2022.”
Only Sasol’s synthetic fuel productions remain fully functional, but this only accounts for a small percentage of the country’s fuel demands.
Sasol’s Natref refineries is an 108 000 barrel-a-day plant and has under its wing, TotalEnergies.
The Sasol outage means SA will be tripling its monthly petroleum imports which will drive up the price of fuel even further.
With South Africans already pushed to the brink with the rising cost of fuel, experts predict the cost per litre could reach R30 soon.
The outage is according to Natref temporary at this point but out of Sasol’s control. While there are oil shipments expected, Sasol’s partners are yet to determine the future of the plant.
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