Refinery pie-in-the-sky

ONCE the word got out that South Africa has run out of -- or soon will run out of -- oil refining capacity, it was perhaps inevitable that we should have a rush of enthusiastic amateurs willing to build new refineries (or pipelines). First, Petroline, iPayipi, and Transnet Pipelines strutted their stuff. Then there were assorted others saying they would build refineries in Richards Bay or Coega. Now we have another lot -- Venessia Petroleum -- claiming they have R10.3 billion just itching to be turned into a refinery in Zimbabwe (Huh?). The latest promise comes from Qatar, whose citizens seem to have more money than sense. But it all goes to show that if you cover the oil industry in layers of secrecy for decades (as we did) and, if you allow perceptions to become entrenched so that everyone believes that manufacturing and selling petroleum products is akin to growing and selling radishes, everyone thinks they can do it. Trouble is, the ground is now perfectly prepared for sundry optimists-cum-con-artists to lead investors and governments up the kamikazi garden path.