CAPE TOWN – Job-seekers in the KwaZulu-Natal area may heave a temporary sigh of relief ahead of the festive season as Engen Refinery’s planned routine maintenance is set to create about 1 500 temporary positions for both skilled and unskilled workers.
Engen Refinery, South Africa’s second-largest oil refinery, said in a statement on Monday that the planned maintenance outage would start on September 2.
The company said this activity formed part of the refinery’s ongoing maintenance programme, with 21 days planned for reformer regeneration activities and 63 days for maintenance of the plant’s alkylation unit.
The general manager of the Engen Refinery, Sykry Hassim, said the routine planned maintenance was essential for the safe and reliable operation of the facility.
“The planned outage will primarily focus on essential plant maintenance and inspection activities in the alkylation unit as well as reformer catalyst regeneration activities.
“The safety of our employees and the neighbouring community is at all times of the highest priority to Engen and we want to thank our neighbours in advance for their understanding during this period,” said Hassim.
Hassim also assured motorists and the company’s commercial customers that the outage would not affect Engen’s ability to service their needs.
Engen is a distributor and marketer of fuels, lubricants and oil-based products. The Engen Refinery produces about 17 percent of South Africa’s fuel.