South African refiners struggle to compete

Most of the country’s ageing refinery capacity remains offline.

Seven months after a fire at South African fuel company Engen’s Durban refinery, much of the country’s 700,000bl/d nameplate refining capacity remains offline as a handful of ageing facilities await repairs, maintenance or investment reviews by operators. Many of these are foreign oil companies that have weathered stormy market conditions overseas in the past year and now face intense pressure from environmental lobbyists. Engen, a subsidiary of Malaysian NOC Petronas, announced in April that it had decided not to revive the 120,000bl/d plant and would instead convert it into a storage facility. The potential costs of upgrading the 67-year-old refinery to meet government demands for cleaner

Welcome to the PE Media Network

In 2021 Petroleum Economist is joined by Hydrogen Economist and Transition Economist to form the only genuinely comprehensive intelligence service covering the global energy industry

Want to read more?

Please choose from one of the following options:

Already registered?
Click here to log in Subscribe now
to get full access to PE + HE + TE editorial and data Register now
to receive our newsletters and unlock up to three articles per month for free Any questions?
Contact us

Comments

{{ comment.comment.Name }} Editor • {{ comment.timeAgo }}

Also in this section

Beijing strives to balance security and decarbonisation

15 October 2021

The ongoing global energy crunch underlines the difficult task facing China’s leaders in balancing energy supply security while reaching net zero in the next 40 years

Occidental exits Ghana

15 October 2021

The US super-indie is divesting its assets in the country

Gran Tierra cranks up the gears

14 October 2021

Midstream takeaway has returned to normal in Colombia, paving the way for production growth opportunities