Mineral and petroleum resources minister Gwede Mantashe has urged South Africans not to panic about the risk of fuel supply pressures due to the US-Iran war, saying the country’s supply nodes are diverse enough to remain largely unaffected.
He was responding to questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon.
The war launched by the US and Israel against Iran earlier this month has interrupted the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz, causing the price of oil to surge.
ANC MP Fasiha Hassan asked the minister whether South Africa’s petroleum supply security arrangements are adequate to withstand a sustained external supply shock as a result of the war.
She also asked how long strategic petroleum reserve volumes would last, and whether supply diversification agreements have been concluded to resolve this.
“You will see that the question reflects panic. And as a mineworker, one thing I learnt early in life is that panic kills. Despite the heightened geopolitical risk, including the disruption to the Middle East shipping routes, the Republic’s current petroleum supply security arrangement remains robust,” Mantashe replied.
You will appreciate that even the Strait of Hormuz allows cargo that comes to South Africa without interruption. So that means that we are having a chance to have a stable supply over a long period
— Gwede Mantashe, mineral and petroleum resources minister
US President Donald Trump has sought to bring some stability to the global markets this week by claiming that the US and Iran were making progress in talks to end the conflict. The Iranian regime promptly denied his claims of talks.
Mantashe said the latest monitoring report confirmed that the overall supply of fuel remained stable and secure with imports arriving as planned through to at least mid-April.
He said planned imports were in place to cover the duration of the maintenance shutdown of the Cape Town refinery.
“Inland supply is supported by stable refining. Sasol, Sapref, and the coal-to-liquid refinery in Secunda are ensuring that there is a reliable supply of energy. And even the Cape Town refinery maintenance shutdown will end at the end of April. That means it will add to the reliability of supply in the country.”
He said South Africa’s sources Brent crude oil from Nigeria and processed products from the Middle East.
“You will appreciate that even the Strait of Hormuz allows cargo that comes to South Africa without interruption. So that means that we are having a chance to have a stable supply over a long period.”
In a supplementary question, Hassan asked what steps South Africa was taking to bolster domestic refining capability and increase the role of state entities under the department to enhance existing infrastructure to this end.
Mantashe said South Africa would continue to rely on its available supplies and provisions to get through the price pressures that have emerged due to the war.
“We bought Sapref after the damage [it sustained in 2022]. We are not going to be doing anything extraordinary to ensure that it supplies crude. We import crude. We process it in what is already there.
“We continue rebuilding Sapref. We continue rebuilding PetroSA and increasing our refining capacity. But for this crisis that is current, we depend on what is in place ... We have got a reliable supply of energy, and people should relax and not be panicking.”
DA MP James Lorimer asked the minister how many barrels of crude oil are available and where they are located.
“In the strategic fuel stock, we have 8-million barrels of oil that is in the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF), which is actually secured by the SFF. That is not used. It will be used when there is a real crisis. Our supply of energy is divided into two. 60% is imported processed product, and 40% is processed by our own refineries and Sasol. So it’s 60-40.”
He said holding large stocks of diesel to profit from price increases was illegal, and that law enforcement would not hesitate to act against anyone who seeks to capitalise on unfounded fears of a supply shortage in this way.
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