South Africa could face another jet fuel supply crisis by October unless urgent regulatory reforms are made, Fuel Industry Association of South Africa CEO Avhapfani Tshifularo has warned.

Speaking at a fuels industry forum, in Johannesburg, on July 25, he explained that the scheduled shutdown of the National Petroleum Refiners of South Africa (Natref) refinery, in Sasolburg – the country’s last operational oil refinery – combined with outdated customs regulations, could severely disrupt fuel supply to OR Tambo International Airport and beyond, potentially grounding flights and straining regional fuel distribution networks.

“If these regulatory issues aren’t resolved by October, we will be in serious trouble,” Tshifularo urged.

He said the impending crisis was linked to long-standing flaws in the 1964 Customs and Excise Act, which governs how fuel can be imported, exported and transported across South Africa and its borders. The legislation was drafted for an era when refineries played a central role in product movement.

However, with South Africa’s refinery landscape now radically changed, the Act is increasingly unfit for purpose.

“We’ve been lobbying the government, particularly the National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service (Sars), for years, saying the 1964 Customs and Excise Act is outdated. It was written with a model focused on the movement of product between refineries and depots, but the industry has changed,” he said.

According to Tshifularo, a key limitation was that, under the current law, fuel exports could only take place from a refinery or manufacturing facility, not from depots. This posed a serious challenge in a country where all major crude refineries had now ceased operations.

“So, if you want to export to Botswana, you must do so from a refinery. But there are no longer any functioning refineries,” he bemoaned.

This regulatory bottleneck has already impacted fuel supplies to South Africa’s neighbours. Tshifularo pointed to the Tarlton depot, in Gauteng, previously used to send fuel to Botswana, which is no longer permitted to export under Sars restrictions.

“This has severely disrupted Botswana’s fuel supply unless they import from Sasol’s Secunda operations,” he noted.

Of major concern is the way these outdated laws affect jet fuel imports. The current legislation prohibits the importation of jet fuel into an import terminal. It must instead go through a refinery, even though such infrastructure is no longer available in critical regions such as Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

“This was manageable when the [South African Petroleum Refineries] and Natref refineries were operating in Durban, but now there’s a serious complication,” Tshifularo noted.

Earlier this year, an unplanned shutdown at Natref resulted in dangerously low jet fuel levels at OR Tambo International Airport. To avert a full-blown crisis, the industry had to reroute supplies through Matola in Mozambique, but only after a three-week delay while Sars processed a special interim licence.

Although that interim licence helped bridge the crisis, it was revoked once the situation stabilised, and Sars has since indicated that such emergency allowances will not be extended again.

Meanwhile, Natref is set for planned maintenance between August and September, further restricting available domestic supply.

“Even if stocks are built up before the shutdown, Natref supplies only about 25-million litres to OR Tambo via pipeline. An additional ten-million litres is supplied using coastal pipelines. That creates another risk,” Tshifularo said.

He advised that Treasury had acknowledged the problem and pledged through its Budget Vote to amend the Customs and Excise Act; however, Tshifularo warned that legislative reform was a slow process and could not resolve short-term operational challenges.

“Legislative amendments take time. We’re not going to get this done in 18 months. In the meantime, we face urgent problems around product movement within South Africa and to neighbouring countries,” he said.

He said the Fuel Industry Association of South Africa was calling for interim regulatory measures and fast-tracked administrative interventions to allow for fuel imports through terminals and exports through depots while long-term legal reforms were under way.

Failure to act, Tshifularo stressed, could see the repeat of fuel supply emergencies, not only at major airports such as OR Tambo, but across the entire country and region, undermining both aviation and economic stability.