Fueling stations across Gauteng continue to run dry after a Durban refinery closed for planned maintenance. Photo: Wiki Commons
Fuel shortages will continue at petrol stations across Gauteng due to a Durban refinery shutting down one of its plants for scheduled maintenance.
The CEO of the Fuel Retailers Association, Reggie Sibiya, told News24 that BP stations are the worst affected, by the shutting of the Enref plant.
The rest of the country including, KwaZulu-Natal, will however remain unaffected.
“We’ll still have about another week of this shortage,” Sibiya told television channel Enca.
According to The Star the affected products include ULP 93, ULP 95 and diesel. He also added that more than a 100 service stations across the country are running dry of one or more of the products.
“I know of two BP service stations that have not received product since Thursday [last week] and are 100 percent dry on all products from yesterday,” Sibiya told the newspaper.
The Star reported that on top of the Enref shut down in Durban, there were also disruptions to production at the South African Petroleum Refineries (Sapref). This has also contributed to the fuel shortage in the province.
The director of the South African Petroleum industry Association, Avhapfani Tshifularo, told The Star that the closure of the refinery was not a surprise and that interventions have been put in place to manage the situation.
The Enref plant is the second largest refinery in South Africa that produces automotive, industrial, aviation and marine fuels as well as a range of chemicals and solvents.
