ENERGY SECTOR CHANGES
HILARY JOFFE: A new commercial refinery makes little sense
Hilary Joffe: Why plan a new refinery now when the future of existing refineries is at risk?
At a time when leaders in the government and governing party are preoccupied with fighting among themselves, policy coherence and certainty can hardly be expected — nor is it clear whether anyone is thinking through the consequences of whatever grandiose policy pronouncements ministers do make. There was certainly no shortage of these in Energy Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi’s budget vote speech earlier in May. She announced a range of changes, from relocating the highly successful independent power producer office into the controversial Central Energy Fund, shifting PetroSA to the Department of Mineral Resources, grand plans to support more black economic empowerment (BEE) fuel importers and to build a new fuel refinery. Kubayi plans to approach the Cabinet in the third quarter of 2017 for a decision on a new refinery. Her preference is a public-private partnership that would be majority South African-owned, with black business participation and "a strong participation of a crude oil-pr...
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