Engen Refinery, South Africa’s second largest oil refinery, is set to undergo a planned maintenance Outage.  

Starting on 2 September 2019, this scheduled activity forms part of the refinery’s ongoing maintenance programme, with 21 days planned for reformer regeneration activities and 63 days for maintenance of the plant’s alkylation unit. 

Sykry Hassim, General Manager of the Engen Refinery, explains that routine planned maintenance is essential for the safe and reliable operation of the facility.  

“The planned outage will primarily focus on essential plant maintenance and inspection activities in the alkylation unit as well as reformer catalyst regeneration activities,” says Hassim.

Additional resource requirements over this period will see the creation of approximately 1 500 temporary positions for both skilled and unskilled workers, many of whom have been sourced from the local South Durban community.

Minimum disruption

“To ensure that we complete this planned maintenance outage on time, there will be increased traffic as suppliers and contractors service the refinery. We will however do our utmost to keep any disruption to a minimum and have detailed planning schedules to mitigate any potential access and capacity issues,” says Hassim.

Focus on safety

“The safety of our employees and the neighbouring community is at all times of the highest priority to Engen and we want to thank our neighbours in advance for their understanding during this period,” he adds.  

Uninterrupted supply of fuel

Hassim also assures motorists and the company’s commercial customers that the outage will not effect Engen’s ability to service their needs.

“As always, Engen’ valued customers remain our first priority and they are assured that contingency plans are in place to ensure uninterrupted availability of Engen quality fuels and other primary refined petroleum products.”

Engen is a leading distributor and marketer of fuels, lubricants and oil-based products. The Engen Refinery produces approximately 17% of South Africa’s fuel.