A new open-access liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant was opened this week at the Port of Saldanha on the West Coast of South Africa.

The 30-year contract for the planning, construction and operation of the terminal was awarded to Sunrise Energy, a partnership between the South African private and public sectors, by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) in 2013.

Saldanha Port Manager Vernal Jones said the R1.02 billion investment would create broader LPG access in the Western Cape and aid in increasing the use of environmentally-friendly and affordable LPG in the national energy mix.

“The terminal will boost the capacity of existing LPG distributors as well as enable the entry of new small, medium-sized and microenterprises, who have had restricted access to the market because of supply constraints and lack of access to enabling infrastructure,” he added.

The future of LPG imports and exports

The facility comprises a 10.9 hectare landside terminal and waterside multi-buoy mooring connected via a three kilometre subsea and over-land pipeline.

Phase 1 of the terminal entails five tanks with 5 500 tonnes of storage, allowing for a monthly capacity of 17 500 tonnes of LPG. Construction of Phase 1 was completed on schedule and a trial shipment was handled at the terminal at the end of May 2017.

Phases 2 and 3 of the project will see modular expansion that will enable the terminal to meet regional LPG supply demands for the next 27 years.

The Sunrise Energy Terminal is poised to become the country’s largest such facility for handling both imports and exports of LPG the ports authority said.

Earlier this month TNPA’s 24-year concession awarded to black-empowered Burgan Cape Terminals saw a new independent fuel storage, distribution and loading facility become fully operational at the Port of Cape Town.