South Africa: Petro SA & CDC Refinery Will Be Key Milestone

The company has announced it will build the R70 billion plant at Coega. It will have an estimated output of up to 400 000 barrels per day. Petro SA’s Thabo Mabaso said it is still negotiating with government about funding for the plant.  “We expect government to make a final investment decision, as far as this is concerned, later next year, so there are other processes that still need to take place,” he said.

In early October, PetroSA and the Coega Development Corp signed an agreement for the Coega oil refinery. The agreement provides for the CDC to recognise PetroSA as the official developer and promoter of the proposed refinery, the establishment of a joint project team and a land allocation agreement for the refinery.

Last week, PetroSA CEO Sipho Mkhize said the 400 000-bl/d project Mthombo crude oil refinery to be built at Coega, in the Eastern Cape, would be the ideal opportunity to train locals to provide services to the refinery in the long term. He noted during a conference in Johannesburg that there were a lot of services that could be supplied to the refinery and that the project would, apart from all the other benefits it would bring to South Africa, encourage entrepreneurial development and alleviate poverty in one of the country’s poorest provinces.

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