Media Release: COVID-19 Preparedness Plan

With COVID-19 now presenting a very real threat to the people and economy of South Africa and its neighbouring countries, and with reference to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of a State of National Disaster, the time has come to address the potential impact of the pandemic on our business and operations.

A global event of this nature necessarily requires adjustment to daily and business routine, and what follows is a brief outline of the steps we’re taking to mitigate its effect.

We’re committed to maintaining the integrity of our supply chain, as much as humanly possible during a crisis of such unprecedented scale. To this end, we’re putting into place preparedness plans for operational safety, supply emergencies and product security, including:

• Product Sourcing – our long-term supply strategy focuses on mitigating risk, which is why we’ve ensured allocation across refineries, including South Africa, Mozambique (Beira and Matola), Tanzania (Dar-es-Salaam), Zambia (Ndola) and Angola (Luanda). Refineries are implementing business continuity and supply security plans to ensure continued supply. This stands us in good stead during a crisis.
• Product Delivery  – our transporters subscribe to the highest HSSE standards, and our logistics specialists are keeping up to date with the recommended health guidelines issued by the South African DoH and the WHO, with an eye to ensuring these are accommodated. In addition, we’re monitoring revised health and hygiene and access protocols at land borders and sea ports – currently, all drivers crossing land border posts to and from South Africa, as well as entering and exiting port facilities are required to wear face masks and gloves and to carry hand sanitiser.
• Movement of People and Goods – We’re monitoring closely developments with regards to possible restrictions of movement both within South Africa and cross-border, with working contingency plans in place in the eventuality that such restrictions should be put into place by the authorities.

Continuous Service and Timeous Delivery

Mobile ITC solutions and cloud-based applications allow our team to offer continuous service remotely.

In the event that our physical office will be forced to close, we’ll be contactable via cell phone and digital channels, and our switchboard will divert to a designated cell phone number.

Our logistics specialists remain available to address your queries and ensure the timeous delivery of your product.

Other measures include:

• Non-essential staff to work remotely, as and when the situation requires it
• Protocols for remaining essential on-site staff, including:
  • Social distancing
  • Hand washing and using hand sanitiser
  • Cough and sneeze etiquette
  • Staff members staying home if feeling unwell
  • Increased routine cleaning of office space
  • No meetings at or visitors to our offices – to be replaced with virtual check-ins
  • Suspension of site visits – to be replaced with virtual check-ins
  • Suspension of non-essential business travel.
• Continuity plans for reduced overall staff levels.

We continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds on a country, continent wide and global scale, heed the guidelines issued by the authorities and remain flexible in our approach to adapting our plans to take into account changing circumstances.

We wish you, your workforce and their families the best of health, and look forward to seeing the situation normalise worldwide as quickly as possible.

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SA Oil is an independent energy company offering reliable fuel supply, logistical and fuel storage solutions to industry across Africa. For industries which depend on reliable fuel oil supplies, SA Oil is able to respond and adapt, quickly and consistently, to the product and service needs of our customers. Get in touch…