South African refiners struggle to compete
Most of the country’s ageing refinery capacity remains offline.
Seven months after a fire at South African fuel company Engen’s Durban refinery, much of the country’s 700,000bl/d nameplate refining capacity remains offline as a handful of ageing facilities await repairs, maintenance or investment reviews by operators. Many of these are foreign oil companies that have weathered stormy market conditions overseas in the past year and now face intense pressure from environmental lobbyists. Engen, a subsidiary of Malaysian NOC Petronas, announced in April that it had decided not to revive the 120,000bl/d plant and would instead convert it into a storage facility. The potential costs of upgrading the 67-year-old refinery to meet government demands for cleaner
Also in this section
9 January 2026
The Latin American producer’s crude prospects rely on a multi-pronged approach where even the relatively easy wins will take considerable time, effort and cost
9 January 2026
While many forecasters are reasserting the importance of oil and gas, petrostates should be under no illusion things are changing, and faster than they might think
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
