This article may contain graphic and/or adult content unsuitable for minors and sensitive readers.
Eastern Cape Economic Development MEC, Mcbisi Jonas, says government time-frames for a final decision on the Mthombo oil refinery is too far off.
He said government's national development plan points to 2016 as the date by which a decision will be made on the multi-billion rand refinery project.
Jonas says while that date is too far for them, the Eastern Cape government is building a strong business case for Project Mthombo to be located at the Coega Industrial Development Zone.
"Across the board there is almost a positive response now to the project. PetroSA has never been this committed to the project and at a political level I think there is general buy-in to the project," he said.
"I think the challenge is for us to continue to lobby, continue to push for the project to happen. Once the initial study is done we need to go further into the front end engineering design."
Petro SA CEO, Nosiviwe Nokwe Macamo, says they're making good progress on the joint venture agreement with Chinese state oil company Sinopec on the feasibility study for the oil refinery.
She says all these studies should be completed by January.
"We'll look at the market study to say what markets are we actually talking about and also in terms of the products what we are talking about. As you know clean fuels 2 has been announced and from 2017 we will have Euro 5 specs. So the configuration of the refinery will be established," she said.
"At the end of the six month period we'll have an idea what the refinery will look like and how is it that we are going to take the process forward."
