{"id":870298,"date":"2026-08-14T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870298"},"modified":"2026-08-14T14:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:41:21","slug":"end-of-the-only-refinery-of-its-kind-in-south-africa-risks-stripping-r10-billion-and-24900-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/870298\/end-of-the-only-refinery-of-its-kind-in-south-africa-risks-stripping-r10-billion-and-24900-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"End of the only refinery of its kind in South Africa risks R10 billion and 24,900 jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sasol’s Secunda plant is a major contributor to South Africa’s GDP and fuel supply and is the world’s largest refinery producing fuel from coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academics warn that a sudden end to its operations would strip billions from the economy and take thousands of jobs with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The facility was built in the 1980s in response to the 1973 oil crisis to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign fuel imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Sasol remains the only inland oil producer in South Africa, with the Secunda facility being the only coal-to-liquid (CtL) operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The refinery is supplied by five coal mines surrounding it in Mpumalanga, and works using a process called Fischer\u2013Tropsch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process involves heating the coal to approximately 1,300 degrees Celsius, turning it into a gas that can then be synthesised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent academic article, Nosaibeh Nosrati-Ghods and several colleagues at the University of Cape Town (UCT) noted that Secunda’s CtL operations have a significant economic impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper said an abrupt end to the CtL process in Secunda could remove almost R10 billion from South Africa’s GDP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also noted that if these operations were to end suddenly, roughly 24,900 jobs could be put at risk, and the country would be more reliant on imported fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sasol estimates that a rapid\/unplanned transition away from coal-to-liquids operations, rather than a phased transformation aligned with long-term climate targets, could reduce GDP by R9.9\u202fbillion and cost approximately 24,900 jobs, while increasing reliance on imported liquid fuels,” the paper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper’s authors said the Secunda facility could face challenges down the road, jeopardising its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Secunda faces growing structural and operational vulnerabilities, including ageing infrastructure,
declining coal reserves, and escalating exposure to regulatory and financial pressures,” they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Without stricter policy enforcement, these pressures could erode the commercial viability of
CtL operations and precipitate early decommissioning or unplanned restructuring.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would pose a challenge to South Africa’s energy supply, since the Secunda facility is the only fuel-making facility in South Africa not reliant on imported oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While South Africa’s other two fuel producers, the Natref and Astron refineries, rely on imported crude oil to produce fuel products, Secunda is reliant on the country’s own natural resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The carbon footprint<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the Secunda facility adds resilience to South Africa’s fuel supply, experts have warned about its environmental impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Nosrati-Ghods’ paper, the Secunda facility is a major source of air pollution, accounting for approximately 84% of Sasol’s total carbon dioxide emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol is already one of South Africa’s biggest contributors to air pollution, accounting for 14.7% of the country’s total carbon dioxide emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nosrati-Ghods and her peers highlighted this fact, calling Secunda “one of the largest single-point Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emitters globally”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the paper’s authors conceded that total decarbonisation of the facility was not realistic in the short term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The complex underpins national fuel security and industrial output, yet its dependence on coal-based
feedstock, coupled with high water and energy intensity, makes decarbonisation both technically complex and economically challenging,” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors instead proposed that the Secunda plant undergo partial decarbonisation, which could help reduce the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Partial decarbonisation strategies\u2014including low-carbon feedstock substitution, electrification, and process integration\u2014offer realistic near-term pathways,” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors said that a move to low-carbon production practices could help the Secunda facility in the long-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Low-carbon production can simultaneously reduce emissions and improve resource efficiency across value chains,” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sasol has faced several environmental challenges related to its facilities, including a planned lawsuit by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit concerns the alleged dumping of chemicals into the Vaal River system, based on several witness statements and recent pollution studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department initially withdrew its lawsuit on this subject in 2025, but has now chosen to renew legal action based on new information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sudden end to Sasol’s Secunda operations could strip South Africa’s economy of billions of rands, and thousands of jobs, academics warn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":859149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2088249543334756750","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2175944409892625","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18193173694389636","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[2240,26176,8389],"class_list":["post-870298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-sasol","tag-secunda","tag-university-of-cape-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870298"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870325,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870298\/revisions\/870325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}