South Africa: Petro SA to Upgrade Fuel Supply Chain
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 |
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PetroSA will invest more than Rand1.5bn in a bid to improve the country's fuels supply chain, a senior official said this week.
PetroSA's Rob Higgins said five projects, including construction of
a storage facility in Durban, the nation's main port, and an upgrade to
a storage site in Mossel Bay, would improve fuel supply in the country.
"The provisional estimate (for the projects) is over R1.5bn," Higgins,
business development manager for the company's logistics unit, told
Reuters by telephone. "Mossel Bay is the most important development."
Upgrading this facility is seen as vital to ensure guaranteed supplies
for PetroSA's flagship gas-to-liquid (GTL) refinery at Mossel Bay on
the country's west coast. Higgins said construction on some projects
would begin in September.
South Africa, a net importer of oil, has been trying to improve its
fuel storage and refinery infrastructure since 2005, when Africa's
largest economy was caught off guard by a shortage that saw many petrol
stations run dry.
South Africa's government has intensified its focus on the energy
sector in the wake of power outages in the past month that have
darkened the homes of millions of residents and cut off electricity to
mines and other businesses.
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