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South Africa’s limited refining capacity has been a source of concern to the government. This has forced the country to import refined petroleum products.
Mineral & Petroleum Resources Minister of South Africa Gwede Mantashe. said at a briefing recently that private investors would be sought to help develop the refinery plant in the country, to reduce the burden on the treasury. South Africa’s limited refining capacity has been a source of concern to the government. This has forced the country to import refined petroleum products.
Sapref, SA’s largest refinery, was jointly owned by BP SA and Shell, which has a capacity of 180,000 barrels a day and is responsible for about 35% of the refining capacity in SA when it is fully operational. Operations at Sapref have been on hold for more than two years after the two companies announced in February 2022 that they were implementing a spending freeze and pausing operations. A decision on the future of the plant is yet to be taken.
There have been reports that TotalEnergies would abandon its gas find off the SA coast to prioritize exploration near Namibia. PetroSA also owns offshore exploration blocks. TotalEnergies has not confirmed the reports.
On mining, Mantashe noted the sector was predominantly black-owned and all major companies have more than 50% of black managers at all levels of management. Mantashe further said the planned cadastral system, which is expected to go live at the latest in June next year, would assist in dealing with backlogs and allow for the transparent allocation of applications for permits and licenses.
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Director-general Jacob Mbele said implementation of the cadastral system had begun, but finalization would take a long time as the data had to be uploaded. The department would work from province to province in this regard. A cadastral system is a set of records and maps that describe the ownership, boundaries, value, and use of land parcels within a jurisdiction. A parcel is a unit of land that can be owned, leased, or transferred by a person or entity.
