BP Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd. and Shell Downstream South Africa (Pty) Ltd. have reached an settlement to promote their respective 50 p.c stakes in property held by the nation’s largest refinery to state-owned Central Vitality Fund SOC Ltd.
The sale consists of the oil firms’ pursuits within the land at SAPREF (Pty) Ltd. and different property together with crude and completed product tanks, course of models, pipelines to and from the refinery to Island View terminal and the Single Buoy Mooring for crude imports, in line with an emailed assertion.
About 48 workers who work on the refinery website and 16 trainees will switch with the enterprise. The sale excludes SAPREF, bpSA’s advertising companies, the Island View terminal operations and the lubricants mixing and grease producer Blendcor (Pty) Ltd., it stated. The sale shall be topic to regulatory approvals.
“We view this settlement as a optimistic final result for bpSA, for South Africa’s gas business and for the nation as a complete,” BP Southern Africa Chief Govt Officer Taelo Mojapelo stated. “Continued possession doesn’t match with BP’s international technique. Discovering a purchaser dedicated to the way forward for the refinery was an essential consideration for us.”
Situated in Durban, SAPREF was commissioned in 1963 as a 50:50 three way partnership between bpSA and SDSA. At its peak, the refinery carried a 180,000 barrels per day capability. It at present manages the Single Buoy Mooring on behalf of the oil firms that personal it. Since pausing refinery operations in 2022, SAPREF has continued to service the 2 firms’ market fuels necessities through imported fuels.
“Acquisition of those property will type the hallmark of CEF’s funding and development technique within the power worth chain geared to put a stable basis to handle the challenges that lie forward within the safety of South Africa’s power future,” Mineral Sources and Vitality Minister Gwede Mantashe stated in a separate assertion.
