OIL COMPANIES WORKING HARD TO ADDRESS FUEL SHORTAGE

MBABANE – The fuel shortage that has seen some service stations running dry, has been caused by one of the Inland refineries (Sasol Secunda) having had a fire incident on Tuesday, October 7, 2014.

This resulted in a partial shut-down of the refinery, something which was further exacerbated by a planned shut-down of the refinery, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources in a statement issued yesterday.

The ministry stated that another refinery in Durban, SAPREF, experienced an unplanned shut-down on October 20, 2014, which lasted for a period of about a week.
The above chain of events meant that almost 50 per cent of the Republic of South Africa’s refining capacity was negatively affected within a month and since most of the local oil companies source their fuel from the Republic of South Africa, Swaziland was, therefore, not spared from these incidents.

Affects

“However, the local oil companies were quick to activate alternative supply which affects them in varying degrees but the landlocked position of the country created a chain of bottlenecks in bringing the product into the country.” 

The oil industry has assured the ministry that they will continue to work around the clock to arrest the situation in the coming few days.
“The general public is, therefore, kindly informed that this shortage of fuel is being urgently addressed and that the oil industry has all the good intentions to minimize the impact to businesses and consumers.”

The ministry said it deeply regrets any inconvenience caused by this very unfortunate situation and would continue to monitor and liaise with the oil industry in ensuring that the country is not adversely affected by the supply challenge.

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