Glencore to restart South African oil refinery in fourth quarter

4th August 2022

By: Reuters

  

Font size: - +

Global commodities trader Glencore will restart its Cape Town oil refinery in the fourth quarter this year, more than two years after a deadly explosion shuttered the plant, Chief Executive Gary Nagle said during an earnings call on Thursday.

The 100 000 bl/d refinery is run by Astron Energy, which is majority owned by Switzerland-based Glencore. Two people were killed in an explosion in July 2020.

The refinery is restarting after repairs as well as an upgrade to several units. The company recorded an impairment charge for the plant of $480-million last year.

A shortage of oil refineries across sub-Saharan Africa coupled with soaring crude prices because of the war in Ukraine has left countries dangerously short of fuel supplies, disrupting airlines and causing queues at filling stations. 

The refinery restart will provide some relief to South Africa, which is a net fuel importer.

Out of South Africa's six refineries, only Sasol's Natref crude oil refinery and its Secunda coal-to-liquids plant are currently operational.

A Sasol spokesperson said the Natref is ramping back up this week after declaring force majeure on crude oil supplies last month.

Edited by Reuters

Comments

The functionality you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION