EMEA News
South African State Fund May Buy SAPREF Refinery
A state-owned South African fund may buy the country's largest refinery.
The country's Central Energy Fund is considering buying the 180,000 b/d SAPREF refinery, news agency Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the situation.
South Africa's refining sector has faced a torrid time for the past two years with multiple closures, limiting local bunker fuel production.
Astron Energy's Cape Town refinery has been shut down since a fire last year, with a restart slated for 2022, while Engen announced plans in April to turn its refinery near Durban into a storage facility by the third quarter of 2023 following another fire-related shutdown in 2020.
The SAPREF refinery was briefly shut down in July on security concerns after political unrest in the country, but was restarted again within weeks.
