Project Mthombo lurches forward

Kellogg Brown Root said yesterday that it had the contract for a pre-feasibility study on PetroSA's US$6-billion crude oil refinery planned for Coega. In doing KBR let slip that if all goes to plan the proposed 200,000 barrels a day refinery (Project Mthombo) will come on stream by 2014 to 2015. Does Sep Blatter know? More to the point, will the World Cup soccer fans we expect to host in 2010 know that we are going to move them around by donkey cart? Of course, we won't. We will just continue to import the stuff at heaven-knows-what price. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again. You see, dear reader, all those years of calling for oil sanctions may not have worked in one sense, but they did in another -- none of the oil companies were too keen in investing in new kit. Only now are we paying the price. Still, if Coega's refinery does get closer it will be a good thing. It will be even better if we all knew that the finance was lined up from a source other than the South African Exchequer. Some say it is the Venezuelans; others the Brazilians. Either way, it is all rumour. Given the nervous state of the international banking system, there will have to be cast iron assurances if it is to be the source of the money. Some say Sasol's new plant will come to the rescue and plug the gap. Spigot's comment:"Fat chance".