Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 4: The toxic cradle of productionSapref, owned by Shell and BP, is the country’s largest crude refinery and is just onekilometre away from Engen which is the second largest. South Durban is the mostactive centre of local environmental justice activism and both corporations now reporttheir environmental impacts. The refinery wastes appear small by comparison withSasol. The latter’s coal based process is undoubtedly the filthiest way of producing eitherfuel or chemicals. Nevertheless, it should be noted that Sasol’s figures largely representthe integration of extraction and production whereas the refinery figures exclude theappalling costs of oil extraction in other countries, as reported in The groundWorkReport 2005. Engen claims that it produced no high hazardous waste (H:H) in 2006but does not report H:h waste. Sapref avoids specifying what proportion of its wasteis hazardous.Table 8: Wastes from selected petrochemicals (tonnes).PollutantSasolGlobalSasolSynfuel(Secunda)SasolChemicalIndustriesNatref Sapref EngenAir 2006 2002 2002 2002 2006 2006Carbon dioxide 60,009,000 52,164,000 7,100,000 819,000 978,000 930,385Sulphur dioxide 223,000 189,923 26,000 19,140 4,015 4,668Nitrogen oxide 162,000 148,300 22,000 1,380 1,301 1,935Particulates 7,560 8,000 3,000 1,150 NR 255VOCs 461,000 409,783 42,000 NR 3,529 971Hydrogensulphide78,000 - - -Solid Waste 2006 2006 2006 2006 2006Hazardous 270,000 NR 5,755 880 NR NRGeneral 1,126,000 NR 11,557 NR NR 2,391Unspecified 6,335Compiled from industry sources. NR = Not Reported.Wasting the Nation - groundWork - 105 -