American companies are rapidly replacing traditional suppliers of gasoline and diesel fuel from the Persian Gulf region to African countries, SABC radio reported.
U.S. fuel imports to Africa have increased significantly during the Gulf War. South Africa imported 5 million barrels of diesel fuel and 400,000 barrels of gasoline from the US during this period. Never before has South Africa purchased such significant volumes of fuel from American companies.
Currently, there is no commercial oil production in South Africa. The country consumes just over 600,000 barrels of petroleum products per day. Of this, 160,000 barrels of motor fuel are produced from coal mined in South Africa. The rest is imported from the world market. In addition, over 70% of South Africa's energy supplies traditionally come from Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Côte d'Ivoire and Namibia, which previously bought fuel from the Gulf countries, are making significant purchases of fuel from the United States. According to the radio station, the United States is becoming one of the main sources of diesel and gasoline for Africa.