CAPE TOWN, July 20 (Reuters) – South Africa’s largest crude oil refinery, SAPREF, will begin restarting on July 21, after temporarily shutting down as a wave of violent looting swept across the country, the operators said in a statement on Tuesday.

The refinery, situated in the east coast port city of Durban, shut down last week due to violence that claimed more than 200 lives and caused billions of rands worth of damage.

A 50/50 joint venture between BP and Shell, SAPREF has a nameplate capacity of 180,000 barrels per day and accounts for around 35% of the refining capacity in Africa’s most industrialised economy, a net importer of petroleum products.

The refinery restart will take between 7-10 days to be completed, the operators said.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf Editing by Alexander Winning)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html