> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# South Africa’s busiest airport is facing a sudden jet fuel. Here’s what you need to know.
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/natref-shutdown-jet-fuel-or-tambo-import-rule/
- Published: 2026-08-28T03:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-28T03:14:59.000Z
- Description: A downstream unit went down at Sasol's Natref refinery, and a rule from 1964 means the missing fuel cannot simply be shipped in instead.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Economy, Business Bagel News, #big

One unit at one refinery stopped working this week and by Wednesday afternoon the Department of Energy had cleared its diary. Sasol said an unplanned shutdown of a downstream unit at Natref, its refinery in Sasolburg, has cut its ability to meet full supply commitments on certain product grades, jet fuel for its customers at OR Tambo International Airport among them. It will keep supplying those customers, in part.

## Why the fuel cannot simply be shipped in

The reason a refinery fault turns into an airport problem is a rule from 1964\. The Customs and Excise Act prohibits importing jet fuel straight into an import terminal, so it has to be routed through a licensed manufacturing warehouse or refinery. South Africa has two of those still operating, Natref in Sasolburg and Astron in Cape Town. Natref is the only inland crude-oil refinery in the country, which makes it the natural supplier to the economic hub sitting above it.

Avhapfani Tshifularo, who runs the Fuels Industry Association, told Tourism Update last year that the rule limits flexibility in sourcing, forces reliance on a shrinking number of refineries and creates bottlenecks during shutdowns and maintenance, "especially when Natref is offline". That was written as a warning. This week it reads as a description.

## What the airlines did about it

The airlines did not wait for a timeline. FlySafair, which carries more than half of South Africa's domestic passengers, has arranged to increase supplies temporarily from alternative providers. Chief marketing officer Kirby Gordon told Bloomberg the airline is also doing a moderate amount of tankering, where an aircraft carries extra fuel so it needs less at the other end, and that together the measures should keep its operations fuelled. The emergency meeting the Department of Energy called on Wednesday afternoon brought in Airports Company South Africa and the Fuels Industry Association, and was confirmed by the Airlines Association of Southern Africa.

Southern Africa is short in more than one place. Namibia is rationing too, after a contaminated cargo left the trading house Vitol scrambling to replace supplies and airlines rerouting flights, a situation Bloomberg reported could last into the weekend. Underneath both, jet fuel has been tight worldwide since the United States and Israel went to war with Iran at the end of February and flows through the Strait of Hormuz were disrupted.

Sasol has given no restoration date, no volume figure and no estimate of how long the shortfall lasts, only that it is implementing mitigation measures and that further updates will follow. It is the second time in nineteen months that a fault at Natref has reached OR Tambo, after a fire around the crude distillation unit in January 2025 did the same thing. The next shutdown at the refinery is already scheduled, for early 2027.