The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa was established in 1994 under the auspices of former president Nelson Mandela to represent the collective interests of the South African liquid fuels industry and to usher South Africa’s vital liquid fuels industry into a new democratic era.
Seelan Naidoo, Chief Executive Officer of Engen Petroleum Limited is the Chairperson of the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa for the year 2024 – 2025.
He is the 26th industry leader to chair the association since its establishment in July 1994.
The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa opened its membership in 2012 to accommodate both existing and potential marketers in the petroleum and refinery market. Membership is available to companies participating in the refining and marketing of petroleum products.
The oil industry is divided into upstream and downstream activities. Upstream refers to the exploration and production of crude oil. Downstream refers to the refining, transportation and marketing of end-user products.
The petrol retail price is regulated by government and changed every month on the first Wednesday of the month.
Under the threat from international oil sanctions in the past, the liquid fuel industry was losing less governmental intervention and regulation.
The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa takes pride in proactively engaging with key stakeholders, providing research information, expert advice and communicating the industry’s views.
For Media queries, please contact
Head Communication: Phila Mzamo
Mobile: 066 423 2319
Email: communication@fuelsindustry.org.za
HSSE
Health, Safety, Security & Environment (HSSE)
HSSE remains the oil and gas sector’s number one priority. Integrated health, safety, security and environment (HSSE) management across the supply chain is essential towards ensuring that employees go home safely to their families and that any impact to the environment and industry assets is eliminated or minimised. Industry efforts extend beyond the fence-line. Learning from local and international best practice, learning from incidents, focusing on long-term behavioural change, complying with legislation, empowering employees and contractors in the sector and establishing a sustainable HSSE culture are key priorities for the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa members. The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa continues to work with relevant stakeholders to meet its objectives.
The oil industry remains unshielded by the local and global socio-economic challenges. Fuel remains a high value commodity. The industry’s security challenges include fuel theft, vehicle hijackings, ATM bombings, armed robberies, piracy, potential terrorist threats, organised syndicates involved in bulk theft, strikes and social unrest among others.
The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa’s focus has been two-fold. An internal focus which includes joint security risk assessments to proactively address potential risks and threats as well as the use of leading security technologies to address some of our security challenges. The external focus is working with industry bodies, government and other stakeholders towards holistically addressing key security challenges such as hijacking and organised crime to name a few.
The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa has taken many steps to prevent crime, such as establishing the health, safety, security and environment committee, security sub-committee and refinery managers’ safety committee whose main focus is to address security issues and manage crime fighting projects. The industry has also united with government, the business sector, and representative associations to fight crime and make South Africa a safer country. The Fuels Industry Association of South Africa maintains an active, industry-wide security and crime prevention programme aimed at maximising the security and well-being of customers, employees, service station forecourts and assets.
The petroleum industry has implemented a number of initiatives to further minimise crime, such as improved cash-handling procedures by retailers and enhanced service station design which includes the addition of bullet-proof glass, panic buttons and closed circuit television systems at forecourts. Service station staff members are being empowered through specialised training programmes in the areas of robbery prevention and survival techniques. Staff members also receive regular information about crime pertinent to their operations in the form of newsletters and alerts. In addition, close liaison is being maintained with the South African Police Service (SAPS) to ensure a full investigation into every crime and to incorporate the findings into enhanced security measures.
Development of an effective oil spill response strategy
The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the SA Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) and the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa established the Oil Spill Response Advisory Forum (OSRAF) in 2014 to address shortcomings in the National Oil Spill Response Strategy as there were concerns that the existing institutional infrastructure and resources were inadequate to deal with a major oil spill incident at sea. The OSRAF has identified the most pressing issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve an effective strategy.
In 2015, a working group was established under the auspices of the Operation Phakisa work stream (oil and gas) which addressed a number of issues that need to be put in place to respond to an oil spill incident originating from offshore oil exploration and production activities. This work overlaps significantly with the issues being addressed by the OSRAF and so it is hoped that the work of the two bodies will be co-ordinated to achieve the end goal of facilitating the establishment of sound offshore oil spill response capabilities around the SA coastline. The adoption of an incident (crisis) management approach to managing these types of spills will go a long way in this regard.
Road safety awareness campaign involving bulk delivery vehicles
In 2015, the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa embarked on this campaign to:
The campaign is in its second phase and will continue into 2016. This forms part of an overall road safety vision around reducing the impacts of non-compliant third party road user behaviour which is a major risk. Further information about the Fuels Industry Association of South Africa’s health, safety and security initiatives can be found in the annual reports.