PetroSA invites tenders for the Project Quantitative Risk Assessment for Project Mthombo. PetroSA is developing the business case for a crude oil refinery in order to meet the expected future shortfall in fuel requirements for South Africa. The proposed refinery would have a capacity of 400,000 bbl per day and be in operation by 2014/2015. The growing demand in fuel consumption in South Africa and the BLNS countries has given rise to a need for another refinery in South Africa. A study done by the Fuel Supply Strategy Task Team (FSSTT) showed that the national demand for refined fuels already exceeds South Africa’s current refining capacity. Estimates prepared before the current economic slow-down showed that the diesel consumption is set to grow at about 6-8%, petrol at 2% and Jet at 6% per annum. Without additional refining capacity, South Africa will increasingly be dependent on imported refined fuels. It was estimated that by 2015, the level of imports will be approximately 10 billion litres/annum. It is common cause that the current global economic crisis has dampened the short term demand for liquid products and transportation fuels, but it is equally certain liquid fuel demand growth will resume once stability is restored and economic growth returns. The current economic slow-down will have only changed the time frame of these projections. PetroSA proposes to develop a world-class crude oil refinery in order to meet the expected future shortfall in fuel requirements of South Africa and mitigate the risk of relying on imports. The refined product would be used primarily to meet demands within South Africa and the BLNS countries and excess product would be exported to the rest of Africa and the Far East. With PetroSA developing new green fields Crude Refinery, the following recommendations from the Energy Security Master Plan (Liquid Fuels) will be addressed: PetroSA will design the crude oil refinery to produce fuels conforming to Euro V specifications, matching the need to adopt global fuels specifications.PetroSA will design the crude oil refinery to process crude oil from South America and West Africa, in line with Government’s initiatives on NEPAD and IBSA, and thereby diversifying the source of crude supply and reducing the 80% reliance on the Middle East. It is important to note that the project is in the feasibility phase and that information is preliminary and will be firmed up as the project progress.