FUTURE demand for cleaner fuels would justify building a new refinery and upgrading existing ones, says Tseliso Maqubela, deputy director-general of petroleum and petroleum product regulation in the Department of Energy.PetroSA, an agency of the government, proposed nine years ago building a R200bn, 300,000 barrels per day refinery, dubbed Mthombo, at Coega. A feasibility study began in 2012, but no decision has been made. It was envisaged the government would hold a 40% stake in Mthombo, with the rest held by the private sector.Maqubela, who was speaking at a South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia) breakfast to launch its 2015 annual report, said it was not optimal for a country to be either self-sufficient or dependent on imports but to have the facilities in place for both.The decision by Sonangol of Angola to halt work on the new Lobito refinery to reassess the project meant another entity had to move ahead with a refinery in sub-Saharan Africa.SA was due to introdu...
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