South Africa’s first coastal bunker barge Amber II is now operational at Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA's) Port of Richards Bay, serving as a floating storage and fuel replacement vessel for petrochemicals company BP’s customer vessels at the port.

The 6 000 t, 105-m-long barge was delivered and mobilised on November 8 and has since delivered more than 43 000 t of products to 94 vessels.

Amber II is owned by BP, while African Marine Solutions (Amsol) handles the logistics and scheduling. It supplies marine fuel and marine gas oil at rates of up to 550 ℓ/h, with a barge capacity of 5 700 ℓ for fuel and 800 ℓ for gas oil.

Port of Richards Bay manager Preston Khomo on Thursday said Amber II is helping to ensure adequate bunkering services to vessels calling at the port, saving them costs that would have been incurred if they were to refuel at other ports, which was often prohibitive.

Since 2016, the Port of Richards Bay has had challenges owing to only having one bunker point. The bunker barge Smit Energy, which is also operated by Amsol, is stationed at the port’s small craft harbor, but has to share Berth 209 with tankers, owing to limited space within the port.

“The presence of the coastal barge Amber II has, therefore, been great news for the port in terms of the improved service we can now offer to vessels,” enthused Khomo.

Amber II remains at outer anchorage and only enters the port when a vessel requires bunkering services. After refuelling a vessel, it returns to outer anchorage.

TNPA granted Amsol a licence to operate the coastal barge after a year of negotiations. BP and Amsol had to commit to a progressive plan to create employment opportunities for South Africans on the barge within the next two years, including employing a local officer.

Amber II currently has predominantly a foreign crew of around 20 people, with only one South African crew member, but Amsol will train South Africans and provide crewing services going forward.

When Amber II requires refuelling, it sails on an eight- to ten-hour journey from Richards Bay to the BP refinery in Durban; therefore, TNPA is also working on granting pilot exemption to the barge to enable it to move in and out of the port without having to take a pilot on board