Shell and B.P. South African Petroleum Refineries (SAPREF)

SAPREF is a joint venture between Shell SA Refining and BP Southern Africa. Known as South Africa’s largest crude oil refinery, with a refining capacity of 8.5 million tons per year, SACREF has been in operation for 47 years. Building work on the refinery started in 1960 and they employed the first employees in June 1963. SAPREF’s facilities, which are of national strategic importance, include the refinery in the South Durban Basin (SDB), storage facilities at the harbour (Island View), a Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) where tankers offload about 78% of South Africa’s crude oil imports and joint bunkering services operated on behalf of various petroleum companies. The company manufactures a variety of petroleum products; these include petrol, diesel, paraffin, aviation fuel, liquid petroleum gas, base oil, solvents and marine fuel oil. With a design capacity to process between 180 000 and 190 000 barrels per day (depending on the type of crude oil processed), SAPREF processed 7.54 million tons of crude in 2010.