OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday
THE African Mineral and Energy Forum (AMEF), which recently signed a black empowerment accord with the established fuel industry giants, has appealed to government to unlock an alleged monopoly in the supply of jet fuel at Johannesburg International Airport.
Accusing South African Petroleum Industry (SAPIA) members of being “obstructive” on the issue, AMEF claims its members have repeatedly tried to enter this market without success.
In an open letter to the Minister of Minerals and Energy, AMEF says its approaches to SAPIA on the issue have been very negatively received and while offers of participation have been made, these have been prefaced with prohibitively expensive barriers.
AMEF Secretary General Maurice Radebe says that, to gain access to the facilities at Johannesburg International Airport, AMEF members are obliged to pay a “throughput fee” of 3,8 c/l and an additional 0,2 c/l technical services fee to one of the consortium members operating the JIA facilities.
The consortium members include the major international oil companies with Caltex as the host company.
AMEF members were further restricted, “arbitrarily” to a 5% share of the jet fuel market at JIA.
This was hardly in keeping with the Government guidelines on black empowerment in the oil industry which had set a target of 25% black participation in the industry and which formed the basis of the recently signed AMEF/SAPIA accord.
The current situation effectively shut out competition and kept the market to the consortium, said Radebe.
AMEF had also not been consulted when the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) concluded a deal with the oil industry consortium to operate the jet fuel facility at JIA.
AMEF members would have preferred to have an independent professional company operate the facility to level the playing fields between the suppliers and to split the cost of doing so among its users according to throughput.
“We have requested the Minister to assist us in resolving the issue. Clearly this obstructive behaviour is not in line with the positive spirit of the recent oil industry summit and is unacceptable,” Radebe added.