- The DA calls for Minister Mantashe and PetroSA to explain the collapse of the Gazprombank deal and outline an alternative financing plan for the Mossel Bay Refinery.
- The DA criticised the Gazprombank deal from the outset, citing concerns about its reliability due to Russia’s international sanctions, which have now been proven valid.
- Minister Mantashe is jeopardising South Africa’s energy security by relying on the failed deal and must answer for how state resources were wasted in the process.
The DA has written to the chairperson of the Parliament’s Mineral and Petroleum Resources Portfolio Committee to call Minister Mantashe and PetroSA before the committee to explain the collapse of the Gazprombank deal and to provide a clear pathway forward for PetroSA’s Mossel Bay Refinery to be financed by an alternative financier.
From the start the DA slammed this deal with Gazprombank, as an ill-conceived and unreliable plan while Russia faces international sanctions for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. It has now proved true that this deal with the Russian State Bank should never have been relied upon by Minister Mantashe.
Without a clear pathway forward Minister Mantashe and PetroSA are gambling with the country’s energy security and parliament must hold them accountable.
Minister Mantashe has played Russian-roulette with Mossel Bay’s Refinery, and he has lost.
The failed deal with Gazprombank Africa, from December 2023, should have funded a resuscitation of the Mossel Bay Gas-To-Liquid refinery, securing reliable natural gas production as part of our energy mix. But once more Minister Mantashe has failed South Africa.
The Minister has serious questions to answer, including how much state resources he wasted on negotiating and finalizing this failed deal.
The DA will continue to monitor this closely, because it has a direct bearing on our energy security.