PetroSA is fighting for its survival after a former business partner, Nako Energy, applied to have the struggling state-owned petroleum company liquidated over R606-million in unpaid fuel bills. But court papers filed this week reveal another side to the dispute: Nako itself owes PetroSA R833-million for a cargo of diesel it bought and never paid for. If the two debts were offset, Nako would actually owe PetroSA R227-million. So why did PetroSA spend 18 months doing seemingly nothing to recover the money? And why did it continue awarding business to Nako, even after Nako's financiers began demanding payment? The dispute stems from a controversial fuel deal that left PetroSA struggling to sell petrol containing the chemical additive N-methylaniline (NMA). After motorists complained that the fuel was staining their vehicles, major fuel companies refused to buy more of the product. PetroSA's own court papers acknowledge that the deal damaged its reputation and cost it customers. Yet despite these problems, PetroSA continued trying to do business with Nako. In October 2025, it requested another petrol delivery. In December, it appointed Nako to supply diesel in Durban, even though lawyers representing Nako's financiers had already demanded payment of PetroSA's outstanding debt. It was only after Nako launched liquidation proceedings that PetroSA indicated it would consider taking steps to recover the R833-million it was owed. And all of this is happening against the backdrop of a deepening financial crisis at PetroSA, which owes SARS R5.1-billion and, by amaBhungane's estimate, could owe creditors around R10-billion in total. In this analysis, we examine the increasingly bitter dispute and the extraordinary lengths PetroSA went to accommodate its former partner, even as it failed to recover hundreds of millions of rands while facing mounting pressure from its own creditors. Read @SAJournalist’s latest analysis: amabhungane.org/analysis-glo…