The ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting convened this weekend in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni, has slammed diesel supply shenanigans at PetroSA for being among the reasons for high loadshedding stages.
NEC member and minister of electricity Sputla Ramokgopa confirmed that there was non-delivery of diesel, which is used as a backup when the national grid is constrained.
Ramokgopa, who was briefing the media on the sidelines of the meeting on Saturday, said there was a tendency not to deliver diesel by the state company, PetroSA, even when Eskom would have paid for it.
A Sunday World investigation has established that load-shedding, which cripples businesses and wrecks households, is exacerbated by PetroSA, which is found wanting in its obligations to supply diesel to Eskom because of alleged manipulation of diesel tenders.
Ramokgopa confirmed this and said that if cartels active in the area were to blame for the non-delivery, law enforcement agencies would look into it.
“We deploy diesel during periods when there is an energy deficit. There are inherent challenges in relation to the movement of diesel as it relates to PetroSA,” said Ramokgopa.
“There was a period just as we transitioned to September where we had a situation when we just did not have this supply, and it was not a money problem because there is R30bn war chest that has been set aside to support Eskom to purchase diesel on the open market so that we are able to run these units…But where we are contracted to PetroSA, we had those challenges.
“I have no evidence that there are cartels that are undermining that work. However, to the extent that there is I am sure that the team at the State Security Agency will be able to resolve that.
“But we have engaged with PetroSA to say that it is unacceptable that we are purchasing, and the money is there, but the diesel is not available. The explanation given to us was short of being acceptable.”
For the better part of 2022 and 2023, PetroSA has been hand-picking companies for the supply of diesel monthly without any tendering process.
Companies would be handpicked by the statement entity’s Trading Executive.
Sunday World can reveal that there are about five non-performing companies that PetroSA Trading has been appointing repeatedly.
What makes matters worse is that the PetroSA Trading division, through the Trading Executive, would defer the appointment of these companies to the following months despite their nonperformance.
Strangely, as required by the law, the PetroSA Trading Executive has failed to inform the National Treasury about these non-performing companies for red listing.
PetroSA supplies an estimated 60% of the diesel demand of the National Power Utility (Eskom) in its quest to reduce and ultimately do away with loadshedding.
Among others, Eskom utilises diesel in its Open Cast Gas Turbines with peaking power profiles such as Gourikwa, Ankerlig, Avon + Didisa, and Acarcia which have an installed generation capacity of about 3 000 MW.
A load-shedding stage is made up of 1000 megawatts, and when PetroSA fails to deliver on time in a specific month because of nonperformance by BBBEE companies, the damage is huge to the country as Eskom struggles to keep the lights on and blackouts worsen.
The open-cast gas turbines are dual in nature, as they use diesel and gas. Due to gas unavailability now, it is diesel that comes to the rescue.
Non-delivery of diesel places Eskom in an untenable position as it struggles to meet its peak demand, which results in the aggregation of loadshedding.
This forces Eskom to rely on its coal fleet to meet that demand, which is costly and has, by nature, high risks of unforeseen breakdowns.
The non-delivery of diesel to Eskom is alleged to be a result of PetroSA’s attempt to cancel a 3-month supply of diesel tender because the preferred companies by some PetroSA senior executives did not make the cut.
Consequently, the Trading Executive has been reluctant to issue the appointment letters from a normal bidding process after more than a year since the previous bidder’s contracts lapsed, which gave way to the handpicking approach on a month-to-month basis.
PetroSA spokesperson said the company “notes the allegations raised and has no comment”.
