Message from the CEO’s Desk

Despite the many setbacks to our business over the past 2 years, brought on largely due to the Covid19 pandemic and the closure of several South African Oil refineries, FFS Refiners’ performance has been resilient, and we are extremely grateful to our dedicated team for making this happen. We approach 2022 with cautious optimism.

Yes – there are still many dark clouds that threaten our business, including the recent announcement of the closure of SAPREF and concerns on the viability of the remaining operating refineries. Notwithstanding these threats, we are poised for growth in 2022 as we continue on our mission to be one of the largest diversified independent petroleum companies in South Africa.

We are extremely excited that we have signed a storage agreement with Rubis Asphalt South Africa to allow for the importation of bitumen into our Cape Town Marine terminal tanks. The first import will take place in Q1 2022. We believe this to be the first import of bitumen from ship into bulk Bitumen storage tanks in South Africa.

Our acquisition of OTGC Tank Terminals should also be completed in Q1 2022 and we are extremely excited about the diversification this acquisition will bring, together with immediate development opportunities for new tankage in the Port of Durban.

Despite many supply challenges and strong competition, our Industrial Energy business remains resilient and will continue to supply our customers with “fit for purpose” thermal energy solutions. Despite a lack of ships in our ports in recent years, our Marine business continues to grow, and we have some exciting opportunities for 2022. Following COP26, there is a huge focus on the move to net zero, and FFS is extremely well poised to take advantage of this with our re-refined hydrotreated baseoil, whose carbon footprint is 81% lower than virgin stock-derived base oil that is not re-refined, whilst meeting all quality requirements of virgin baseoil.

With our diversified business, our team that live our values, expertise from our technical and customer support teams and our Level 1 BBBEE status, I firmly believe that FFS is well positioned to provide unique hydrocarbon solutions and to be your business partner of choice in 2022.

Yours faithfully

Andrew Canning
Chief Executive Officer