LETTER: Phala Phala saga distracts from global energy danger
Eskom is now a diesel addict, with a thirst for about 50-million litres a month. Come 2023, where is this going to come from?
The Phala Phala “revelation” was a dirty trick concocted by Arthur Fraser to get rid of President Cyril Ramaphosa. It’s just another twitch in the slow demise of the ANC. But obsessing about it takes our attention off a global danger in which SA is quite likely to become collateral damage.
The Ukraine conflict has morphed into an energy struggle. The EU’s $60 price cap on Russian crude will have implications. Oil cartel Opec, under the de facto control of Saudi Arabia and Russia, may decide to cut production again, driving up the oil price.
From February 5 the EU will no longer buy Russian diesel, currently 40% of its supply. Where will the EU then find the 500,000 barrels a day it requires in an already tight market?
Meanwhile, Russia continues to smash Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure, turning it from an electricity exporter to both an importer and a significant user of diesel generation equipment.
France’s nuclear fleet is no longer performing, making it an importer as well, although sanity seems to have prevailed in Germany, prompting it not to switch off the last of its functioning nuclear reactors.
The UK media continue to wail about possible load-shedding over Christmas. I’m beginning to think the net zero campaign was a fiendishly astute Russian initiative to weaken the West before embarking on its “special military operation”.
How could this situation affect SA? We import most of our refined fuels, including petrol, diesel and aviation fuel. Eskom is now a diesel addict, with a thirst for about 50-million litres a month. Come 2023, where is this going to come from, let alone the rest we need to keep our economy functioning? Possibly Russia, but complications are more than likely.
I wish there were a little less in the media about Phala Phala and rather more about how we will be reopening refineries and treating refined fuels as strategic. After all, it is only 22 years since the Moerane report flagged this danger.
James Cunningham, Camps Bay
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