Glencore’s South African refinery invests in cleaner fuels

Astron Energy, a unit of global commodity trader Glencore, will invest up to six billion rand ($328 million) to install new equipment and become compliant with South Africa’s cleaner fuel specifications ahead of a 2027 deadline, the company said on Wednesday.

The foundations have already been laid at the 100,000 barrels per day crude oil refinery, close to Cape Town, for a Gasoline Hydrotreating Process that will help bring petrol down to Euro 5 specifications, senior Astron officials said.

South Africa’s Clean Fuels II regulations, which required that sulphur levels in both petrol and diesel be reduced to 10 parts per million (ppm), was meant to come into operation in 2017 but was postponed to July 1, 2027.

“We will be supplying compliant fuels at the date asked of us,” Thabiet Booley, the chief executive officer at Astron Energy told lawmakers during a visit to the plant on Wednesday.

Astron Energy is one of only two crude oil refineries operating in South Africa, whose domestic refining capacity has halved to around 358,000 barrels a day following the closure and mothballing of the two largest crude refineries in Durban.

Africa’s most advanced economy imports around 75% of its liquid fuel needs, which was estimated at just over 19 billion litres in 2023, according to industry body FIASA.

According to the Strategic Fuel Fund, the state agency tasked with securing strategic crude oil supplies at Saldanha’s storage terminal, South Africa currently had less than 21 days of reserves in the event of a major incident.

The government has purchased the Sapref 180,000 bpd refinery in Durban, which was the country’s largest crude oil plant before being mothballed in 2022 and subsequently badly damaged during floods, as part of efforts to bolster local refining capacity and reduce security of supply concerns.

($1 = 18.2682 rand)

(By Wendell Roelf; Editing by David Evans)

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