Vita Gas has made a seemingly sudden decision to halt LPG imports into the Western Cape.A LPG shortage appears to have been averted as alternative supply will land this week.Vita Gas, a subsidiary of Dutch commodity trading giant Vitol, has walked away from a contractual arrangement with Sunrise Energy, leaving the import terminal facility scrambling to secure a supply of liquefied petroleum gas for the Western Cape region.
While refineries like PetroSA's Mossgas and Chevron's Milnerton plant previously supplied the local market with LPG, the closure of these plants left the region highly dependent on imports which are brought in exclusively through Saldanha Bay. Vita Gas said that it appreciated that its decision is likely to lead to some short-term supply issues for local distributors and [subject to Sunrise Energy's prior agreement] is willing to continue to supply LPG via the terminal for a period of time.
It's plain to see that there was a strategic move to empty the facility and then close the contract off. The commission referred the matter to the tribunal, calling for an administrative penalty to be levied against Vita.