SA fuel supply stable, but panic buying drives shortages

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DUDUZILE RAMELA: In a statement published on 20 March 2026, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) said, and I quote, “Government and industry reiterates assurances on fuel supply and urges the public not to panic buy.

“The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has noted with concern the circulation of statements and messages by certain organisations and individuals, encouraging members of the public to rush to filling stations due to a perceived fuel shortage and anticipated fuel price increase.”

Now, a recent report by The Daily Investor notes that many fuel stations across South Africa have run out of diesel and, in sporadic cases, petrol, prompting stakeholders to call for action.

Avhapfani Tshifularo is the CEO of the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa and joins us for more. Thank you very much, sir, for your time this afternoon.

I quote that statement from 20 March from the DMPR because there’s nothing new here, because I’m on their website, in terms of the state of play. In the absence of that, as a stakeholder, what is the current state of play?

AVHAPFANI TSHIFULARO: Currently we are still seeing stable supply of products. I think the statement by the DMPR is still valid.

As we look at the month of April, we still that we are fine. We are managing the situation. We’ve got sufficient planned imports that are coming into the country, with the months of May and June still being confirmed.

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What we have seen though is that there is some panic buying which is putting a strain on service stations, because of the time it takes to replenish stocks at individual service stations. But overall, there is sufficient product in the country.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: You say we have sufficient planned imports, and so help us understand in terms of where South Africa gets its oil from. We are a net importer of oil, are we not?

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AVHAPFANI TSHIFULARO: Correct. If we look at the feedstock in the form of crude oil, largely we are dependent on the continent. The biggest supply is Nigeria, and then followed by countries like Ghana and Angola.

Then there’s a little bit that comes from, I think it’s less than 20% of our crude oil requirement, it comes from Saudi Arabia or the Middle East. That is as far as crude oil is concerned.

But when it comes to products, we import products from the US, we import products from UAE, India and many other countries.

The imports of finished product, it’s over 50% of our own requirements. The balance of what we use in the country is manufactured by our three refineries, and that’s really the current situation.

Right now, the current refineries, two are operational, one is on planned maintenance, but there are planned imports to cater for the demand for that refinery. But the refinery itself is going to be coming back towards the end of April.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Please do correct me if I’m wrong, but what I’m hearing, essentially, is that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has not disproportionately impacted South Africa, because we get most of our oil right here on the continent.

AVHAPFANI TSHIFULARO: As far as crude oil is concerned, that’s correct.

The bulk of our crude oil comes from the continent.

But as far as finished products are concerned, there are some suppliers who experience disruption, especially those who get their products from Middle East places like Oman and so forth.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Please explain to us between the diesel price and the petrol price, where are the prices set?

AVHAPFANI TSHIFULARO: The petrol price is set by the government through the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (Gwede Mantashe).

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Essentially, he fixes the price at the retail level, and you can’t discount or sell above that price. The price is changed once per month. So we are due for another announcement for the month of April this week.

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But as far as diesel is concerned, the department does not regulate the price of diesel, for both wholesale and retail. So individual station owners set their own prices, and they decide when to change their prices.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Given that we have three refineries, you said that one is undergoing maintenance, two are operational. What is our refining capacity?

Because the conversation right now is that perhaps the continent needs to take a closer look at refining its own oil and bolstering that. But would you say that we are at comfortable levels? Why are we net importers of crude oil?

AVHAPFANI TSHIFULARO: We are net importers of crude oil because the country does not have its own crude oil.

Until such point in time where we discover our own crude oil, the whole situation will change. But for now, we are dependent on the imported crude oil.

You asked the question of refining capacity. So back in 2019, we had six refineries, and two have pretty much disappeared.

One was converted into an import terminal. The other one pretty much disappeared when it was flooded. Then for the other one, they have paused operations. We have lost almost 50% of our refining capacity, which is equal to 350 000 barrels per day.

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But as long as you don’t have crude oil in South Africa, you’re always going to be reliant on imported crude oil.

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The question is, does it serve the country better to have more refining capacity, vis a vis building more storage facilities to store finished products? A crude oil refinery is a 24/7 operation.

It works very differently from a planning perspective, compared to just an import of finished products.

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With crude oil, you get to benefit quite a lot because there are so many by-products of refining products which are required by many downstream industries.

Also, the refinery itself, the local economy benefits a lot from a refinery. But the issue of global disruptions or geopolitics, what we are experiencing now, whether you have a crude oil refinery that is dependent on imported crude oil, or you are just importing product, you are exposed to all those geopolitical tensions. You can’t avoid that.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Maybe we can reiterate the message to South Africans. There is nothing to fear and there’s no reason to panic buy, at this moment at least.

AVHAPFANI TSHIFULARO: Indeed. We continue to see a national fuel supply system that’s stable with adequate availability of all major petroleum products across the country.

We are just experiencing a challenge with panic buying, where the demand at the fuel stations is quite elevated, but otherwise there is sufficient fuel available.

A service station might be dry for a couple of hours, but it will be replenished in time.

DUDUZILE RAMELA: Thank you so much, sir, for helping us understand that. Avhapfani Tshifularo is the CEO of the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa.

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