Cape Town – South Africa’s largest fuel producer, Sasol has reportedly declared a force majeure on petroleum products.
According to Fin24, this comes after the temporary shutdown of key refinery Natref on Friday due to delays in crude oil shipments.
“Sasol Oil has declared a Force Majeure on petroleum products as a result of delays in the arrival of crude oil shipments which are beyond Sasol Oil’s control. These delays have impacted availability of crude oil feedstock for processing at Natref, which necessitates the shutdown of its Natref refinery.
“In the circumstances, Sasol Oil will not be in a position to fully meet its commitments on the supply of all petroleum products from July 2022,” Sasol said in a statement as quoted by the report.
The oil company did not provide any details on what caused the shipment delay but instead said that it was engaging industry players and affected customers on the matter.
ALSO READ | AA calls on SA govt to urgently intervene as new fuel prices set to kick in on Wednesday
In the same breath, Sasol confirmed that a shipment finally arrived on Saturday, saying that it expected that Natref would be running at full capacity by end-July.
According to Bloomberg, Natref’s closure followed the suspension of production at a number of other facilities over the last two years.
Sapref, the country’s largest plant owned by Shell Plc and BP Plc, ceased operations ahead of a sale and was subsequently damaged by floods while State-owned PetroSA’s gas-to-liquids plant ran out of feedstock, said the report.
Engen oil refinery shut down after it caught fire while Glencore Plc’s Cape Town refinery closed down after an explosion at the facility.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Picture: Facebook/ Sasol
Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
