South African petroleum company Astron Energy has retained its Level 1 B-BBEE status for the second year running. Astron Energy, a licensee of the Caltex brand in South Africa, was founded in September 2018 and is the only fully integrated oil company to achieve Level 1 with the complete value chain – including retail, commercial, refining and lubricants – being included in the assessment.

Maintaining Level 1 status is highly significant for the company as it demonstrates that Astron Energy continues to play its part in the sustainable transformation of the economy.

Astron Energy’s shareholders Glencore and OTS56 enable the company to have a percentage of black ownership in excess of the target in the Generic Codes and there are several other important measures which demonstrate that Astron Energy has gone beyond mere compliance and is making a positive, transformational impact in the communities in which we work.

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• 60% of board directors are black South Africans.
• 86% of our total workforce is black, of which 35% are black women
• 58% of our retail network is managed through our Caltex Branded Marketer Programme; the average black ownership of the Branded Marketers is 80%. 
• Almost half our crude oil is procured from black-owned trading companies, 39 % of whom are black woman-owned.
• 80% of our procurement is from black suppliers.
• Each year we impact 30 000 direct beneficiaries through our social investment partnerships.
• Our Enterprise and Supplier Development Programme, since its inception in 2015, has provided more than R100m in interest-free loans and credit lines to assist black owners in building their businesses.

Chairman of the Board at Astron Energy, Mpho Scott, says that Level 1 status was never an end in itself: “We are on a growth path and are completely committed to the core principles of transformation. We will continue to fuel positive and dynamic change in our economy and our society.”