The state-owned Central Energy Fund (CEF) has agreed to buy the Sapref refinery from Shell and BP for R1, reports News24. This concludes a two-year-long discussion to purchase the refinery after it was flooded during the KwaZulu-Natal floods in April 2022.

The refinery will need substantial investment to make it functional and upgrading to meet new environmental standards. The Durban crude oil refinery was the largest in the country, and until April 2022, it provided 35% of SA’s refinery capacity, processing 24 000 tons of crude oil a day. It was owned 50-50 by Shell Downstream SA (SDSA) and bpSA.