Coega refinery concerns as PetroSA plans to cute staff

WITH PetroSA planning to reduce its staff by 40% because of declining revenues, fears of Port Elizabeth’s Coega oil refinery initiative Project Mthombo being jeopardised have been raised.

However, a spokesman for the national oil company yesterday allayed the fears, saying that as Project Mthombo had not got off the ground, the looming mass retrenchments would mainly affect the operations around Mossel Bay in the Southern Cape.

The Mthombo project has been on the cards for the Coega Industrial Development Zone since 2007 but has hit snags since 2010, when it was announced in parliament that a feasibility study had been concluded.

Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber chief executive Kevin Hustler said the chamber had long been an advocate for the establishment of the oil refinery at Coega.

-Mkhululi Ndamase