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Country's largest refinery declares force majeure amid KZN unrest

14 Jul 2021

Sapref, South Africa's largest crude-oil refinery, has declared a force majeure and shut down operations at its site in Durban.

Source: LinkedIn/Sapref

“Due to the civil unrest in the country and disruption of supply routes in and out of Kwazulu-Natal, suppliers of materials critical to Sapref operations communicated the suspension of deliveries to the refinery due to safety concerns for their staff and damages to their vehicles on the roads. Sapref has been obliged to make the difficult decision to shut down the refinery. As a result of the aforegoing, Sapref hereby declares the occurrence of an event of force majeure, excusing Sapref from performing under the agreement,” a letter to customers said.

Sapref suspends operation and deliveries.#ZumaUnrest pic.twitter.com/xGZyVEr2xm
— Entrepreneur Zone (@SayEntrepreneur) July 13, 2021

Sapref is a joint venture between Shell SA Refining and BP Southern Africa. It is the largest crude oil refinery in Southern Africa with 35% of South Africa’s refining capacity. The plant processes 24,000 tons crude per day.