It seems to be all about oil these days. Where ever you turn there is talk about the oil price, in the news they are always mentioning the same thing and who can get away from the news about the oil refinery going up in flames in Durban in the beginning of the week?

A petrol tank containing 7 million litres of petrol exploded on Monday at the Engen refinery in Durban after it was struck by lightning. The fire has since died down and under control now but it is time to look at the effects this fire has caused. Straight after the fire, reports said that the fire caused losses of between 5 and 8 million litres petrol and that this loss was unlikely to cause any serious supply constraints. This came as a surprise to me that, they can say such a loss will not effect the economy. I think they were just trying to paint a pretty picture out of a terrible situation and give us all false belief that everything is okay meanwhile they know that there is going to be a problem.

Now yesterday (Wednesday, 21 November), new reports emerge stating that the Durban fire could actually result in there being petrol shortages during the upcoming festive season. The report mentions that there will be no shortages in the short term but rather during the festive season. Now can you imagine having a fuel crisis in South Africa over the festive period?

There is likely going to be a fuel price increase in December anyway after the world oil prices edge even closer to the $100 a barrel mark. Coupled with that, chances are high that there could be another interest rate hike in December. We are meant to be going in a ‘festive’ season where everyone should be happy but what joy can one get from all this that is happening in our economy today?

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