As motorists struggled to find petrol on Monday, the government denied any fuel shortages inland.
”There is no shortage in the inland areas, including Gauteng,” Minerals and Energy Minister Lindiwe Hendricks told reporters in Pretoria.
Asked about complaints of Gauteng filling stations running dry, Hendricks said this was contrary to her information. She had just met representatives of the petroleum industry.
There was no need for panic, the minister added. ”We believe the situation is under control.”
SA Petroleum Industry Association director Colin McClelland said extraordinary demand prompted by public fears was causing petrol stations to run dry.
Shortages were at the level of filling stations and depots, not production, he added. ”There is a lot of petrol in Gauteng, but it is all in some motor car’s tank.”
The situation inland constituted ”an inconvenience rather than a crisis”, and motorists should not wait for their tanks to empty before filling up.
The provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State ”should be OK”, with the Western Cape still bearing the brunt of the deficit, McClelland said.
Motorists inland might not find stock at some filling stations for a few days, but should strike it lucky if they tried a number of them.
In the Western Cape, the problem was more serious, with ”a lot of” service stations without petrol or diesel. In the Eastern and Northern Cape the situation was ”tight, but OK”, McClelland said.
He added the shortage was easing countrywide. ”Things are improving.”
The business sector and emergency services remained concerned. The SA Chamber of Business said the tourism and freight industries had yet to start feeling the effects of the shortage.
”We are literally sitting back in anticipation, waiting,” said transport and logistics policy executive Wayne Bateman.
Western Cape emergency medical services have to get aircraft fuel from the police airwing over the weekend.
The situation was ”tight” in Malmesbury and the Klapmuts/Paarl areas, where emergency services had enough fuel for a 12-hour shift, said the province’s deputy director for emergency medical services, Dr Wayne Smith.
Emergency services did not have strategic stockpiles of fuel.
”It is a concern. I hope that if we get to that stage, we will receive priority with government intervention.”
The Cape Town flying squad said some of its vehicles had no petrol over the weekend, and had to go from one filling station to another. But no delays were reported in response times.
The city’s chief fire officer, Piet Smith, said the aerial response unit sometimes battled to get fuel in recent days causing delays of one or two hours in some cases.
McClelland said the shortage should be over in two weeks’ time.
”But this depends on no new problems cropping up.”
Cape Town International Airport, without fuel over the weekend, now had four days’ stock.
The Airports Company SA said there were no flight delays on Monday, following numerous delays over the weekend, while SA Airways said it had been allocated enough fuel for its Cape Town flights.
”We still have contingency plans in place, such as carrying extra fuel from Johannesburg and other stations to Cape Town,” SAA said.
”Passengers can arrive for their flights. We do not anticipate that we will have to offload passengers or cargo to carry extra fuel.”
BP jet fuel spokesman Kader Jacobs said enough fuel was being produced for the airport.
Supply to emergency services and firefighting aircraft in the Cape Town area was ”reasonable”, although one private company had complained of low stock.
”If there is another hiccup… we would be in a crisis position in Cape Town,” Jacobs said.
The petroleum industry has urged airlines to take maximum fuel on flights from Johannesburg, requiring minimum top up in Cape Town until stock is replenished in about three days’ time.
The George airport, Jacobs added, currently only had about one day’s stock, but extra fuel was on the way.
McClelland said local oil companies had bought tens of thousands of tons of fuel destined for other clients from cargo ships passing the South Africa coast — which was expected to arrive on shore in about a week.
The Engen and Shell/BP refineries in Durban were producing fuel at full capacity since the weekend, as were the joint Sasol/Total refinery in Sasolburg and the oil-from-coal plant in Secunda.
The Chevron plant in Cape Town was producing at about 80 percent of capacity, and the oil-from-gas refinery in Mossel Bay at about half.
The shortage arose from technical problems after the country’s six refineries were closed for upgrading to comply with the country’s conversion to cleaner fuels from January 1.
Hendricks said the current problems could also partly be blamed on an increase in demand prompted by a recent petrol price drop.
Filling stations waited before ordering new stock for fear they would have to sell fuel acquired at the higher price at the new, lower one.
The government and industry had agreed to co-operate to return the situation back to normal, including moving fuel from areas with an excess of fuel to those with great need.
The government would commission a regulatory review of the industry ”in the interest of security of supply”, she added.
South Africa uses about 22-billion litres of fuel a year. It produces about seven or eight billion more than that — which is exported to countries like Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland.
The fuel situation in these countries was currently ”tight”, McClelland said. – Sapa