By Andisiwe Makinana
Political Writer –This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on August 20,2010
Oil company PetroSA will run out of water at its refinery in Mossel Bay by the end of October and may be forced to close temporarily.
It is not only the refinery that is running on empty. The town of Mossel Bay has between 97 and 126 days before it,too,runs out of water,municipal officials told visiting members of the Western Cape provincial legislature (MPLs) on Thursday.
The gas-to-liquid (GTL) refinery will run out of water within 46 to 56 days time,its operations manager,Michael Nene,said at the meeting with the provincial legislature.
Addressing the MPLs,who are on an oversight visit in the area,Mossel Bay’s Johan du Preez said the Wolwedans Dam’s water levels were at 16.62 percent on Wednesday. It is the biggest dam in the area.
He said four emergency water supply projects were in the pipeline:a wastewater treatment plant,groundwater extraction,water recovery from the Hartebeestkuil Dam;and a seawater desalination plant.
Mossel Bay’s municipal manager,Dr Michele Gratz,said the desalination plant would cost about R210 million and that PetroSA had promised to contribute R80m.
Gratz said running the desalination plant would cost R100 000 a day or R36m a year. Electricity costs will be R50 000 a day.
“Ratepayers are going to bear the brunt,”she warned.
Mossel Bay is one of the southern Cape towns in the Eden District that were declared local disaster areas last year because of drought.
This week,some towns reported improvements in their water supply but Mossel Bay’s water levels were dipping even further.
Nene described the refinery as “a guzzler of water;it needs to be quenched”.
He said the water crisis could lead to the refinery having to shut down.
But a PetroSA spokesperson said on Thursday that a shutdown was “not an option”.
“The refinery produces around 30 000 barrels of oil a day. This is used to manufacture around 7 percent of the domestic petrol supply,which the refinery sells to retailers.”
Nene said PetroSA consumed roughly 50 percent of the water from the dam while the other half was allocated for municipal use.
PetroSA would use the dam’s water until the levels fell to 10 percent,according to Nene. “Current predictions are that this will be at the end of October.”
The desalination project,described as the municipality’s immediate solution to water shortages,is scheduled to be completed by the end of January.
PetroSA spokesperson Thabo Mabaso confirmed on Thursday that the water scarcity presented a threat.
Asked if the local petrol supply could be affected by the water shortage,Mabaso responded:“If anything,closing is not an option.”
PetroSA is a wholly state-owned petrol and petrochemical producer.
