The Northern Cape’s biggest fuel supplier, Desert Oil, has successfully managed to stop OP Bathlaro Filling Station and businessman Andrew Kesiamang from entering into any fuel supply agreement with TotalEnergies Marketing South Africa.
Desert Oil, Africape Energy’s flagship company, supplies and manages the Caltex service station network in the Northern Cape on behalf of Astron Energy.
Desert Oil took OP Bathlaro and Kesiamang to the Northern Cape High Court after the filing station wanted to enter into a business deal of fuel supply with Total Energies, while previously, when it was still called Caltex OP Filling station, it was getting supply from Astron Energy.
However, there was a showdown in court on September 13 when the court heard how OP Bathlaro wanted to switch alliances after it made a U-turn with the intention of working with TotalEnergies.
Notice of motion
On August 19, Desert Oil, which is an applicant on the matter, issued an application for interlocutory interdictory relief on a truncated timeline.
In its notice of motion, Desert Oil requested that OP Bathlaro and Kesiamang be interdicted and restrained from entering into a fuel supply agreement with Total and/or with any person other than the applicant.
Desert Oil also asked the court to stop OP Bathlaro and Kesiamang from carrying out any fuel supply agreements they may have already made with Total or any other party and asked that the applicant not do anything that would stop them from continuing to supply fuel to the business in Bathlaros that goes by the name OP’s Filling Station, even if that meant shutting down the business.
Bathlaro and Kesiamang filed their answering affidavit without taking issue with the request for condonation, and Desert Oil filed its replying affidavit, while Total filed a notice of intention to abide.
Judge Almè Stanton stated that she accordingly dealt with the matter without making a finding in respect of urgency and in view of the fact that the matter was properly ventilated.
No new deal for OP Bathlaro
“I find it prudent to adjudicate this application without issuing a rule,” reads the court document.
“The following are the undisputed salient facts that Desert Oil carries on business as a ‘branded marketer’ of Astron Energy, previously Caltex, for the Northern Cape province and is a wholesale supplier of Astron- or Caltex-branded petroleum products.
“Desert Oil supplied petroleum products to OP’s filling station in terms of the agreement that was concluded during September 2016 for a period of 20 years, thus expiring on 31 August 2036.”
Stanton granted Desert Oil an order that OP Bathlaro was not going to have a new deal with TotalEnergies based on the contract Bathlaro had with Desert Oil, which ends in 2036.
Reads the judgment: “Pending the final determination of an action to be instituted by the applicant against the first and second respondents claiming declaratory and consequential relief in terms of Section 20[9] of the Companies Act 71 of 2008, the first and second respondents are interdicted and restrained from entering into a fuel supply agreement with the third respondent and/or with any person other than the applicant.”
In her judgment, Stanton also stated that there should be no implementation of any fuel supply agreement that may have already been concluded with TotalEnergies or any other party.
