The Natref refinery at Sasolburg was commissioned in 1971 and has been at the cutting edge of refining technology since its inception. As it is situated inland, the refinery’s market for heavy fuel oil was quite limited and as a result, it was designed to get the most out of crude oil and equipped with state-of-the-art technology to achieve this. The refinery makes use of the bottoms up grading refining process, this uses medium gravity crude oil which gives NATREF the capability of producing 70 percent whiter product.
Production
At the refinery, the main products produced are petrol, diesel, jet fuel, bitumen, and fuel oil with a capacity of 108,500 barrels of oil per day. Located in Sasolburg, the Free State, Natref supplies the main South African inland market of Johannesburg and the surrounding areas, however it starts its inland journey 600km (355miles) away at the coast. The crude oil destined for Natref is offloaded in Durban via floating Single Buoy Moor (SBM), which is co-shared with other oil companies and managed independently. In Durban, the crude is stored in 15 crude storage tanks before beginning the long uphill journey to the refinery.
Due to its inland location, near the industrial heartland of South Africa, the refinery is sited in a place where the market for heavy fuel oil is quite limited. Therefore, since it was founded, Natref has needed to squeeze all the value out of their crude, which requires state-of-the-art equipment. By utilising the bottoms upgrading refining process using medium gravity crude oil, the refinery has the capability of producing 70 per cent whiter product than coastal refineries, which must rely on heavy fuel oil.
Having commenced operations over half a century ago, it is no surprise that in that time the refinery has undergone several expansions and upgrades. Mr Dayanand Rajaram, Senior Vice President at Natref, shared some of the more technical details about the refinery’s evolution and current capabilities.
“The refinery was originally designed as a 55,000 bbl/d refinery,” he says, “In 1976, it was expanded to 75,000 bb/d, and then to 86,000 bb/d in 1993 and to 108,000 bb/d in 2002. In 2005, the refinery was upgraded to clean fuels 1 specification. In 2016, the refinery started producing 50ppm diesel.”
He goes on to explain that the refinery configuration has a Solomon complexity factor of 10.9. As mentioned earlier, it has a significant bottom upgrading unit (residual crude desulphurization – RCD), as well as the capability for processing vacuum residue and atmospheric residue from the crude columns into FCC feed. In addition, the refinery also has several specialised units including a hydrogen reformer unit, a hydrofluoric acid (HF) unit, and a bitumen unit.
There are a number of other recent key developments including several upgrades to infrastructure that have been completed. Such as the human machine interface (HMI), and distributed control system (DCS) upgrades. Health monitoring on key rotating equipment was implemented by upgrading the Bentley system and the company has installed state-of-the-art training simulators on two production units, with a further view to link this with virtual reality to further improve operator training and engagement. Further to these items, solutions that provide online monitoring of critical operating parameters to prevent process safety incidents have also been installed.
“At the moment, the refinery is piloting and rolling out a wireless plant inspection tool that will assist operators and maintenance staff in improving their effectiveness,” Mr Rajaram says, “These are among some of the more recent changes to improve the data gathering, decision-making and the training of employees.”
New Developments
One company leaves another takes its place.
For decades Natref was owned by TotalEnergies and Sasol, but this changed earlier this year, when British company Prax Group struck a deal with TotalEnergies to buy their stake in the refinery. Although the companies did not reveal the agreed price for the 36.36% stake in the facility it is known that Sasol will retain control of the remaining 63.64 percent.
Prax said this purchase would see it enter the South African market where they envisage Natref serving as a focal point for its expansion into Africa. It also represents the beginning of their move into the continent as they plan to make further investments in the asset to establish it as a regional hub.
“The signing of this agreement is the first step towards our entry into Africa which will provide us a solid platform from which to execute our future growth strategy,” said Prax CEO and chairman Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai.
“The acquisition marks another significant milestone for the Prax Group and will create unique opportunities across the South African supply chain, meeting the needs of customers and communities for years to come.”
Focus
“The transaction is in line with the Company strategy to focus on its large integrated fuels and petrochemicals platforms and to divest its non-core assets,” said Jean-Pierre Sbraire, CFO of Total.
TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables, and electricity. Employing over 100,000 people they are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, more sustainable, more reliable, and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in nearly 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people. They own a 50.1% stake in TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa. The other 49.9% is owned by South African shareholders.
Interesting Future
Natref represents not only a long-term asset that has continued to produce for over fifty years, but is still South Africa’s only inland refinery and processes heavy crude. This provides a number of opportunities for the UK company to take advantage of established infrastructure and employee-skills. Particularly as Prax has interests in the upstream but also in the downstream, which means the future for Natref is going to be an interesting one. Not to be crude, but black gold has never seemed so refined.
