South African Business 2019 edition

OVERVIEW Gauteng.

OVERVIEW Gauteng. SacOil’s R90-billion project aims to deliver gas to Johannesburg and the nearby towns in 2020. The Port of Saldanha in the Western Cape launched a new openaccess liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant in 2017. It will be run by Sunrise Energy. The major economic sectors using gas are the metals sector and the chemical, pulp and paper sector. Brick and glass manufacturers are also big consumers. An agreement has been signed between PetroSA and Russia’s geological exploration company, Rosgeo, which will see 0-million invested and gas delivered to the gas-to-liquids refinery at Mossel Bay (Mossgas). Assets The South African oil industry generates annual sales of about R365-billion and includes global giants such as Engen, BP, Shell, Total and Caltex. In 2016, Chevron began the process of exiting South Africa. Sinopec of China has bought a 75% share in Chevron South Africa for R12.6-billion. Assets include a lubricants plant in Durban, an oil refinery in Cape Town and 820 petrol stations across South Africa and Botswana. South Africa’s own global giant, Sasol, is a major player in the oil sector and the only player in the petrochemicals sector. Most of the oil that feeds the country’s four crude-oil refineries is imported. In addition to South Africa’s crude-oil refineries, natural-gas conversion plant, coal-to-fuel and gas-to-liquid crude-oil refineries, Sasol produces fuel from coal at its Secunda facility and PetroSA has the country’s only gas-to-liquid (GTL) facility at Mossel Bay. The Chevref oil refinery in the Cape Town suburb of Milnerton produces about 110 000 barrels a day of South Africa’s total production of 703 000 barrels a day. The Natref refinery is strategically placed at Sasolburg near to the industrial hub of southern Gauteng. The petrochemical complex at Sasolburg is a major national asset. One of Sasol’s many companies, Sasol New Energy, is moving the group away from reliance on fossil fuels. The Natref refinery is a joint venture between ONLINE RESOURCES Independent Power Producers Programme: www.ipp-projects.co.za National Energy Regulator of South Africa: www.nersa.org.za Petroleum Agency SA: www.petroleumagencysa.com South African National Energy Association: www.sanea.org.za South African Petroleum Industry Association: www.sapia.co.za Sasol Oil (64%) and Total SA (36%). It is a technologically advanced facility, which refines heavy crude oil into petrol, diesel, commercial propane, jet fuel and bitumen. KwaZulu-Natal hosts two oil refineries which jointly account for more than 300 000 barrels of refined crude oil. South Africa’s biggest refinery is Sapref in Durban. Owned jointly by Shell SA Refining (25%), Thebe Investments (25%) and BP Southern Africa (50%), it has a capacity to produce 180 000 barrels per day. The Enref refinery owned by Engen can produce 135 000 barrels per day. Safor is a base-oil production facility (jointly owned by Engen, Caltex and Total but operated by Engen) that produces 45% of Southern Africa’s base oils. Engen also owns the adjoining Lube Oil Blend Plant, which produces more than 72-million litres of finished lubricants annually. A new facility is the 118 000m³ Bergan fuel storage unit. It comprises 12 tanks located on the Eastern Mole of the Port of Cape Town. Getting fuel to the province of Gauteng is the key mission of the new multi-purpose pipeline (NMPP) which started delivering fluids in 2012. The NMPP terminals allow for greater flexibility in supply. Refined products such as jet fuel, sulphur diesel and both kinds of octane petrol are carried. The liquid fuels and gas networks of Transnet Pipelines has intake stations at both Durban refineries (petroleum), while the gas pipeline runs from Secunda to Durban, with diversions to the manufacturing hubs of Newcastle and Richards Bay, and along the coast between Durban and Empangeni. SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2019 76

Poised for growth INTERVIEW Dickson Ramokone, CEO of Bakone Holding Investment, outlines his company’s ambitious expansion plans. What drives your business strategy? Initially, it was to achieve control of the ore itself. I was interested in base metals and I pursued a career trading in diamonds and gemstones for almost 20 years. That was my passion. When did you start? It was a long time ago, about 2005. Things were hectic in the early days. It takes a number of years to put something together and we were not financed by banks, we had to do it all ourselves. BIOGRAPHY Growing up in a business-oriented household in Soweto, Dickson Ramokone quickly learnt “the value of a penny”. Exposed as he was to family spaza shops and other ventures, he learnt to deal with figures and became very aware of what was happening in the business world. He has been involved in base metals, diamonds and the construction business for a number of years. Now you are quite diverse? I have a whole lot of things that I have put together. We have several companies that we operate, to align with different sectors. In addition to metals and agriculture, we also have logistics and prospecting rights for different minerals. We are always looking for opportunities. Can you give us an example? If we see that the market needs diesel, then I will look to find the concession or be the licensee to make sure that it happens. We will see to it that people and companies get their diesel. This year I’ve done about 30 deals. Things fall in place. What are some of your current projects? We are getting into commercial farming, with several farms between 800ha and 1 500ha under irrigation. The aim is to build vegetable sorting and packing facilities for the market. We have also done several property deals and we are in the process of setting up a finance company. Do you own all your subsidiaries? Yes, I am the sole owner, but I am going to be buying equity in an existing manufacturing facility soon. And future plans? We are buying equity in ore concessions and gems and we intend to list. We are on the verge of listing 12 companies on the main board of the JSE. 77 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2019