Who We Are

A joint venture between Shell SA Energy and BP Southern Africa, SAPREF is southern Africa’s largest crude oil refinery, with a refining capacity of 8.5 million tonnes a year. The refinery has been in operation for 44 years. Building work on the SAPREF refinery started in 1960 and the first staff members were employed in June 1963.

SAPREF’s facilities are of national strategic importance. They include the refinery in the South Durban Basin (SDB), storage facilities at the harbour (Island View), a Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) where tankers offload about 78% of South Africa’s crude oil imports and joint bunkering services operated on behalf of various petroleum companies. In 2007 SAPREF refined crude oil to manufacture about 19% of South Africa’s petrol and made a variety of other petroleum products including diesel, paraffin, aviation fuel, liquid petroleum gas, base oil, solvents and marine fuel oil.
The South Durban Basin comprises residential areas, commercial businesses and heavy and light manufacturing industries. It is the second largest industrial area in South Africa in terms of output, contributing about 9% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
SAPREF’s major stakeholders include it’s surrounding communities, customers, shareholders, suppliers and contractors, trade unions, direct and indirect workforce, authorities and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations). As at 31 December 2008, SAPREF employed 610 permanent staff. SAPREF is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.

Vision