Mega milestone at Milnerton refinery

The refinery invested a further R450 million in the construction of a multi-point ground flare and elevated flare, which will further reduce the refinery's environmental impact.

"Planned refinery maintenance and safety inspections are practiced world-wide to allow for technology and operational upgrades, to uphold high levels of safety and to ensure a refinery is running optimally, resulting in fuel security. During maintenance periods supply constraints are carefully mitigated through the building up of strategic fuel supply in the time leading up to any planned maintenance and safety inspection," says Doug Pottenger, GM at the Chevron Cape Town Refinery.

Refineries across the world, no matter their age, require constant investment and innovation. The Digboi Refinery is the world's oldest operating oil refinery, located in the northeast corner of India it was commissioned in 1901. In 2011, the Chevron El Segundo Refinery situated in California celebrated 100 years of being in operation.

"The Chevron Cape Town Refinery, which was constructed in 1966, is young in comparison. We inject direct capital of more than R300 million into our refinery annually - in terms of general maintenance and operational developments, above the planned maintenance and safety inspection investment."

The Chevron refinery sustains approximately 13,500 direct and indirect jobs in the Western Cape. The refinery maintenance and safety inspection has a significant ripple effect whereby individuals and companies benefit. Above increased employment and skills transfer, a number of small businesses benefited from catering to hiring of marquees and scaffoldings. Chevron's refinery spends over R700 million annually on local suppliers, all of which are through BBBEE accredited companies and 25% through black owned companies.

The Chevron refinery:

• Fuels 100% of airplanes at Cape Town International Airport
  
• Fuels 95% of cars on the Western Cape roads
  
• Produces 80% of LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) in the Western Cape

For more information, go to www.capetown.chevron.com.