Cape Town. Concerts scheduled by US pop star Pharrell Williams in South Africa next month face disruptions from pro-Palestine protesters over a promotional deal he has with major retailer Woolworths, which has trade ties with Israel.

The Grammy award-winning producer and performer has been targeted by the South African branch of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel (BDS) movement. It objects to Israel’s 48-year-old occupation of territories where Palestinians seek an independent state.

Williams is collaborating with Woolworths on its “Are You With Us” campaign, acting as style director on several sustainability-focused projects encompassing fashion and fundraising for education.

“He is about to face the biggest backlash any artist has faced in South Africa in over 30 years, since the days of apartheid,” said Braam Hanekom, a BDS South Africa board member.

“He is walking into a very angry, unhappy environment because he has chosen to walk with Woolworths,” Hanekom told Reuters after the City of Cape Town denied an application by thousands to protest at Pharrell’s first concert on Sept. 21.

He said protesters could block roads on concert nights, potentially delaying proceedings, or even rally inside venues.

Pharrell’s representatives did not respond immediately for comment. Grand West Casino, where the Cape Town concert will take place, said they would not allow any protests on their property. The second concert is in Johannesburg.

Pro-Palestine marches in South Africa often attract large crowds, especially in Cape Town with its large Muslim community.

Woolworths said in a statement that it did not source produce from the occupied territories, less than 0.1 percent of its food came from Israel and that it clearly labeled every product’s country of origin.

The global BDS movement has also campaigned against British security firm G4S over its Israel links. It says its pleas have prompted musicians including Irish rocker Sinead O’Connor and hip hop star Lauryn Hill to support its cause.

Reuters

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A fisherman rows his dinghy past oil refineries near port terminals in Singapore November 5, 2013. South Africa will export cleaner fuels to Asia from 2017 using a new crude blending terminal. (Reuters Photo/Edgar Su)

Cape Town. Using the world’s first dedicated crude oil blending terminal, South Africa will by 2017 mix different grades of crude oil for export to refineries across Asia, enabling them to produce cleaner fuels more cheaply, an official said on Thursday.

Construction of the 2 billion rand ($161 million) fuel blending farm, which consists of 12 massive concrete bunkers, should start in August with the first output expected for the second quarter of 2017, said Pieter Coetzee, a director at OiltankingMogs, a joint venture firm developing the terminal.

“Our model is based on blending of different grades of crude to supply a specific recipe to a refinery,” Coetzee told Reuters.

“We saw, in terms of environmental legislation worldwide to produce clean fuels, that there is a need for refiners to blend different grades of crude to get that specific clean fuel on the other side,” he said.

Illustrating his point, Coetzee said they could typically take heavy crude oils from South America and blend them with the lighter, sweet crude of West Africa to provide almost any fuel specification for a refinery in India, China, Korea and Japan, the main export markets targeted.

“Obviously, blending happens within the refineries, they will blend on a small scale before it gets fed into the refinery, but this is no longer feasible. They need the right recipe coming into the refinery,” he said.

The terminal will use a patented system in which fluid dynamics are utilized to blend the crude varieties, with specialized equipment in the tanks using the velocity of the incoming fluid to mix with the crude in the tank, said Coetzee.

South African logistics firm Grindrod, MOGS which is fully-owned by Royal Bafokeng Holdings and leading oil storage company, Oiltanking, are among the shareholders at the terminal, located at South Africa’s deepest natural port and emerging oil and gas hub, Saldanha Bay.

The terminal, able to fill a VLCC tanker within 48 hours when fully operational, has already attracted interest from the global oil majors and oil traders.

“We’ve got 10 of the 12 tanks committed for long-term contracts and the off-takers include the oil majors and oil traders,” Coetzee said.

Each of these tanks will hold 1.1 million barrels of crude, which equates to the size of an Aframax or Suezmax vessel, Coetzee said of the blending and storage terminal which had a total capacity of 13.2 million barrels.

Reuters

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