Gas to liquids no panacea

PETROSA says it is "looking for opportunities" after its bid for a gas-to-liquid (GTL) project in Algeria was cancelled due to rising costs. Noting "the pressure of demand over existing supply in South Africa… we are stepping up exploration around this region, in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania," according to a spokesman. Wait a minute. PetroSA is a wholly-owned government company. It already has interests in Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan. Surely, taxpayers' money should be better spent on our inadequate liquid fuels infrastructure, rather than on foreign ventures of dubious prospects. Judging from shutdowns caused by its inability to run its Mossel Bay plant properly, any spare PetroSA money should rather also be spent on jacking up efficiency closer to home.

A refinery capacity problem not an oil shortage

THE gobbledygook that passes for analysis among Greenies has it that the world is in imminent danger of running out of oil (define imminent: Er…next week? Next month? In 40 year's time?). It's wrong, of course, but such is the noise produced in the media that the real reason for high oil prices often goes unnoticed. So, hear this. It is a shortage of refining capacity, stupid. Proof of this is the four consecutives days last week of a falling crude oil price which can be directly linked to the higher than expected refinery production figures in the United States. U.S. gasoline stocks were seeing rising 400,000 barrels last week as refinery usage increased sharply. Meanwhile, OPEC's second-biggest crude producer, Iran, has announced it will increase its output if necessary. Wouldn't it be nice if all the loud mouths on the subject of cruse oil supply were compelled to hold their breath until their dire predictions actually came true? Or didn't….

Curiouser and curiouser

WESTINGHOUSE Electric Company has agreed to buy IST Nuclear (ISTN), a provider of services and systems for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), to grow its capabilities in the South African nuclear market, it has announced. Well, well! Isn't it interesting that a company like Westinghouse wants to buy into a technology that all the greens claim is dangerous, a waste of time and money and won't work anyway? Could it be that South Africans have once again come up with something the world wants? To add to the other great inventions we have given to the world like Dolosse, road markings, welded railway lines, the Scheffel Bogie, the wind-up radio and, not to forget, car tyre sandals and the Vuvuzela.

Cave* Carnie

DEAR Dave Carnie, the environmental reporter for the Daily News in Durban, is again up on his hobby horse -- taking a swipe at the oil industry, this time using ammunition supplied by " a report sponsored by the Netherlands Institute for South Africa and (coyly) an environmental watchdog body in KwaZulu-Natal". Why, Spigot wonders, is this watchdog so shy of being named? Could it be that the dog in question is that pillar of rationality, GroundWorks -- the organisation that makes its living screaming abuse at the industry in South Durban, thus ensuring a continuing supply of Euros to its coffers? "South African petrol remains almost as dirty and poisonous as ever, despite the introduction of "clean" unleaded petrol over the past few years, writes our intrepid reporter -- forgetting to mention Shell and BP's investment of R700 million in making Sapref completely lead-free, and failing to differentiate between the Engen Refinery, which produces benzene, and Sapref which does not, and failing to tell the public that Sasol uses the manganese-based additive MMT, whereas BP refineries, anywhere in the world, will not. Spigot feels for Sapref spokesperson, Margaret Rowe, who said the company was disappointed that the new report did not incorporate most of the factual information and comments submitted by Sapref. How about taking a full page ad in the Daily News to put the matter straight? * Latin for "Watch out for".

At last, common sense!

"A LOT of small ( Black) companies do not know how to put together a health, safety and environment plan and in most cases, tenders are turned down because people do not meet the safety requirements". This was the dollop of common sense delivered in Durban by Sapref manager, Sandile Mgojo, the manager for contracts and procurement engineering services at the refinery. He was speaking at a conference organised by the Durban Chamber of Commerce, Sapref and the eThekwini municipality. The conference aims to " help small, medium and micro enterprises realise the opportunities in the industry" though quite how a conference does this, is anyone's guess. Still, how pleasant a change it is to have some common sense on the subject. "We know that people are frustrated by this because they are always told that there are opportunities," Mgojo said. Safety requirements were the biggest hurdle for small businesses seeking to enter the petrochemicals industry. The industry handled highly explosive products every day. Amen, says Spigot. "A lot of the people that approach us offer to cut grass at the refinery, provide catering services or pest control services," said Mgojo. "We need companies that will offer hi-tech repair services."Amen again. Unstated is the blind public ignorance about the oil industry. Most people think it is sitting greedily on a great big pile of money and selfishly refusing to spend it. Spigot doubts conferences will change this mindset. Only a retreat from congenital oil company secrecy has a chance of achieving it. That means real lobbying by people who know the facts. It means hiring lobbyists with skills that extend beyond the colour of their skins.

Always something new out of Africa

LAUGHING and crying are often synonymous and Spigot did both on reading of the latest twist to the sad tale of Zimbabwe's demise. A female traditional healer (polite word for witchdoctor) is on the run for claiming to have found diesel fuel oozing out of a rock. It was, she claimed a "gift from ancestral spirits who saw that their children were suffering because of the fuel shortage." Knowing that a picture is worth a thousand words, this indigenous genius had herself photographed holding a hosepipe stuck into a rock, "spewing the oil," the Sunday Mail reported at the weekend. Sadder still is that three senior cabinet members were immediately despatched to "investigate" and report back to the ZANU-PF politburo.

I am freckled, please send money

THE National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) gave Petroline SA a licence on March 29, to build a petroleum pipeline from Matola Harbour in Mozambique to Gauteng - despite the Department of Minerals and Energy arguing against it (for appearances' sake?). Who is Petroline? Well it is owned by the Woesa Consortium( Women in Oil and Energy South Africa) , Gigajoule International, Petroleos De Mozambique and Companhia De Desenvol-vimento De Petroleo Mozambique Sarl. Ja, well. The Mozambique end of this looks reasonably Kosher but Woesa is a different thing altogether. Woesa, it turns out, is a group of women who think they have a divine right, thanks to their gender, to play a major role in the South African oil industry. On this basis they have been diligently begging money from Eskom, the DME, and the South African Petroleum Industry. Not a little money either. They have managed to get donations eof R672,000 between 2004 and 2005. Who were the willing donors? Why, the DME, R150 000, the Development Bank of South Africa R150 000, the South African Petroleum Industry Association R150 000, ABSA bank R20 000, the Central Energy Fund R20 000, Eskom R25 000 and Engen R30 000 -- among others. Note this: R320 000 from State organisations. This is public money that has been dished out to people who have simply declared that they are owed a slice of the oil industry. It clearly is a wonderful idea so Spigot is now forming his own organisation. It is restricted to all those who are freckled and redheaded. For too long we have been discriminated against. DME, CEF, SAPIA, ESKOM, ABSA, please send money -- postal orders, cheques, cash accepted without question. Receipts on request only.

HOW GREEN IS MY ACSA?

HOW nice of the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) to report on the complete rehabilitation of the little vlei that it filled with Jet A1 some months ago. Spigot’s mind is re-assured by such continued affirmations of ACSA’s almost carnal love of all things bright and beautiful. May ACSA continue to rub noses with frogs, venerate insects, hug trees and invite bunnies to graze on its runway verges. However, why does ACSA refuse to admit that OR Tambo International Airport is sitting on a 30 million litre lake of aircraft fuels sloshing around in the shifting clay basin that was once Mr Agliotti senior’s brickfield? And why does ACSA deny that the runway supply pipelines have been leaking for nearly 30 years because they were built on unstable clay substrate? And what about the discount “brown paraffin” that was, until not so long ago, being sold in the townships surrounding the airport, reportedly supplied by contractors who were sinking wells on the periphery of this ‘lake’ to stop it pluming into the boreholes of fence-line communities? Next time your plane lands at OR Tambo, listen out for that squelching sound as your flight touches down. Welcome, all 2010 visitors.