Most of Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA’s) ports projects would be launched within the next two to five years, in what TNPA general manager for strategy Nico Walters on Tuesday described as “exciting times” for the authority.

Transnet’s 2012 Market Demand Strategy was currently taking shape, and the TNPA had progressed the refurbishment of several existing ports and established several new facilities.

Speaking at a Southern Africa Shippers Transport and Logistics Council-hosted Logistics Business Breakfast, in Johannesburg, on Tuesday, Walters said TNPA was particularly optimistic of a R13-billion project to transform Saldanha Bay into the oil and gas hub of South Africa within four years.

The authority was currently preparing tenders for the build, own, operate and transfer concessions of three major flagship projects at the Western Cape port, announced last month as part of government’s Operation Phakisa programme to tap into the benefits of the ocean economy.

Saldanha Bay is well located for both the rigs operating off West and East Africa, as well as for passing trade, or the so-called tow-rig market.

Engineering News Online had previously reported that there were around 100 rigs currently operating offshore around Africa, with up to 120 rigs passing South Africa’s shores for repair in, primarily, Asia.

Walters said Saldanha Bay would, in effect, become a one-stop rig repair and oil-services hub, with the first project the creation of an offshore supply and service base for oil rigs, supplying offshore vessels with “whatever they need”, including food and waste-collection services.

In line with this, the second project would be a dedicated 380-m-long, 21-m-deep rig-repair facility, or Berth 205, that could simultaneously house two deep-water submersible and semisubmersible rigs.

The third project was the 500-m-long, 8.5-m-deep Mossgas facility, a shallower jetty and repair facility, to service, maintain and repair a range of other smaller vessels.

Meanwhile, TNPA would undertake a feasibility study for the design and construction of a vessel repair facility at Richards Bay, while positioning the East London port as a hub for boat building activities.

Talking to TNPA’s existing facilities, Walters said the refurbishment of several other critical port facilities was under way.

TNPA had port facilities in Durban, East London, Mossel Bay, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.