Hi All,

Just a thought on something I observed in the petroleum industry and how it works
We have the "oil majors" who are also refineries ..the likes of Total, BP,Shell,Engem,Sasol and PetroSA
Then we have wholesellers or distributors, that is every other business that deals in petroleum products but is not a refinery

Now, both the oil majors and wholesellers looking to sell to either commercial customers (mines and big industries) and other end users
but, then the wholesellers must still try and secure/ get product from the sale refineries that they will compete with to sell to customers
And, historical evidence proves that the oil majors will give the whollesellers prices that will then make it difficult for wholesellers to compete in the industry
Also, during shut downs..either planned or not, the majors simple cut out the wholesellers and that means wholesellers lose business
That in turns means the wholesellers end customers will now try and sorce directly from the majors, cutting out the whollesellers even further

To me, it seems this prcatice is clearly not appropriate
And, I know someone may say...why don't thewholesellers import product into SA?
Answer is simple, they can NOT. There is no storage in SA, where will they put product? And even if there was, the oil majors control the pipe line from durban, so even if you do import and get storage (by whatever miracle), they you can not bring product inland on pipeline still
And remember the storage is not accessable by truck,

What can be done on this matter?