CAPE TOWN, July 20 (Reuters) - South Africa's largest crude
oil refinery, SAPREF, will begin restarting on July 21, after
temporarily shutting down as a wave of violent looting swept
across the country, the operators said in a statement on
Tuesday.
The refinery, situated in the east coast port city of
Durban, shut down last week due to violence that claimed more
than 200 lives and caused billions of rands worth of damage.
A 50/50 joint venture between BP and Shell,
SAPREF has a nameplate capacity of 180,000 barrels per day and
accounts for around 35% of the refining capacity in Africa's
most industrialised economy, a net importer of petroleum
products.
The refinery restart will take between 7-10 days to be
completed, the operators said.
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf
Editing by Alexander Winning)