Saldanha liquefied petroleum gas import terminal, South Africa

13th May 2016 By: Sheila Barradas - Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

Saldanha liquefied petroleum gas import terminal, South Africa

Name and Location
Saldanha liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import terminal, Western Cape, South Africa.

Client
Sunrise Energy is majority owned by MOGS (60%), a subsidiary of Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), with the State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (31%) and Illitha Group Holdings  (9%) as minority participants.

Project Description
The project’s terminal facilities will include a storage facility and multibuoy mooring (MBM) system, located in Big Bay, in Saldanha Bay, for the docking of LPG vessels. The vessels will range from 5 000 t to 6 000 t.

The product will be offloaded from ships at the MBM and transported to the onshore terminal by a subsea and overland pipeline to the onshore terminal, where the LPG will be blended and odourised to specification, before being dispatched to customers using road/rail loading, direct cylinder filling, or a pipeline to downstream customers or storage facilities. 

Phase 1 of the Sunrise Energy terminal is for 5 500 t of storage, which includes the MBM system and will allow for the importation of up to 17 500 t/m of LPG. The project is designed in a modular way to respond to growth in demand, with an ultimate storage capacity of 16 500 t (after the implementation of Phase 3), corresponding to a throughput capacity of 52 000 t/m or 624 000 t/y.

The LPG terminal will be an open-access facility – it can be used by any gas importer, distributor or downstream user to import LPG.  This will ensure easier entry for all participants in the LPG distribution sector.

Subsequent phases will be suited for the delivery of LPG to a power generation project in Saldanha.

Value
R1.2-billion.

Phase 1 will cost an estimated R900-million.

Duration
Construction started in February 2016. The facility will be commissioned and operational by April 2017.

Latest Developments
The fabrication of LPG vessels, known as bullets, for the open-access LPG terminal being developed at Saldanha Bay has been completed.

The bullets will be moved to the terminal site over the coming five weeks, marking a key milestone in Phase 1 of the R1.2-billion storage project.

The pressure vessels, which have been fabricated domestically, will provide 5 500 t of LPG storage capacity at the facility, which would be operational by the second quarter of 2017.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Aveng Engineering (engineering and procurement); WBHO (onshore terminal construction); Clough Murray & Roberts Marine (marine facilities and pipeline construction) and Efficient Engineering (LPG bullet fabrication).

On Budget and on Time?
Sunrise encountered several unforeseen delays following the start of early construction and fabrication in February 2014. The project is now back on track, with full construction starting February 2016.

Contact Details for Project Information
Sunrise Energy project development manager Karen Lowe, tel +27 21 551 4866, fax +27 86 660 7813 or email karen@sunrise-energy.co.za.
Aveng Engineering, tel +27 10 205 1000, fax +27 87 807 0143 or email info@e-pc.co.za.
WBHO, tel +27 11 321 7200, fax +27 11 887 4364 or email wbho@wbho.co.za.
Clough Murray & Roberts Marine, tel +27 11 456 6200, fax +27 11 455 2222 or email info@murrob.com.
Efficient Engineering, tel +27 12 460 9580, fax +27 12 346 6135 or email info@efgroup.co.za.