Petroleum Africa
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
South Africa’s Transnet is studying the development of a proposed dig-out port on the old Durban International Airport site and toward that end aims to finalize an engineering solution for the relocation of the single buoy mooring (SBM) oil loading facility by early-2014. The relocation of the oil loading facility is vital in meeting the project’s overall timeline.
Executive manager for panning support Noel Cronje told delegates at an African Petroleum Industry Association conference that the current SBM terminal is located precisely where dig-out port’s breakwater will be developed and its relocation is, thus, unavoidable. “If we don’t move the SBM, we can’t build the port.”
Under the current schedule it is envisaged that the Durban Dig-out Port (DDOP) could be up and running and receiving vessels in 2020. The project is estimated to cost more than R100 billion and will if it moves forward could become largest deepwater container terminal in Africa. .
South Africa is marketing the project as a public–private partnership (PPP) opportunity.
Various alternative sites are under review together with potential new pipeline routes for the SBM terminal, with undisrupted liquid-fuel supply having been identified as a project imperative. “The SBM is a very critical piece of infrastructure not just for Transnet and not just for Sapref and other oil refineries, but for the whole country, because the vast majority of crude oil that’s imported into South Africa comes ashore via the SBM,” Cronje explains.
It is, therefore, unlikely that the existing SBM can simply be relocated, as the reliability in the new facility will have to be proved before the existing SBM can be decommissioned. “That places us under some time pressure, which is why we need to identify a new site and establish a new import route as soon as possible,” Cronje said, adding that initial studies have shown up both positives and negatives for the various alternatives.
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