Demla is an experienced process engineer and has worked for the past 13 years at Sapref, a Shell & BP JV crude oil refinery in Durban. Her most recent role was that of Process Support Manager for the refinery Oil Movements, Utilities and Bitumen Blending areas.

Her passion is project development, she is motivated by her understanding of getting a project’s scope definition correct early on to enable delivery on time and budget . She enjoys the teamwork that projects require and the challenge of the technical problems that need solutions. She has been involved in front end development of the refinery’s major capex projects from 2017 to 2020, both as a project development engineer and project lead. Much of these activities involve co-ordination across multiple stakeholders, requiring a high level of dedication and organisation.

The Sapref projects were on gasoil hydrodesulphurisation unit revamps for 10ppm S diesel production and low sulphur marine fuels production for the Marpol 2020 sulphur cap regulation. Scope covered areas from the crude tank farm with changes in crude diet, to the processing units, product blending systems and harbour terminal site.