The proposed construction at four of the country’s eight ports would give South Africa additional options should plans to build an oil refinery fail to materialise, said Hamilton Nxumalo, general manager for planning, maintenance and capital projects at state-owned Transnet’s National Ports Authority, reported Bloomberg.
Ngqura, in the Eastern Cape province, was favoured to house the refinery, he said. Mthombo, which would be the sub-Saharan region’s biggest refinery if built, would have capacity to process 300,000 barrels per day and would raise the country’s fuel-handling capability by 43% from the current 703,000 barrels per day.
“Space constraints at the key liquid fuels ports of Durban and Cape Town mean we have to look elsewhere, and Ngqura appears the most suitable,” he said on Wednesday at the Argus Africa Storage and Logistics 2015 conference at Durban. He stressed that no decision has been taken on Mthombo, which is estimated to cost Rand15 bill ($1.12 bill).
The government had said that PetroSA, the state-owned oil company, would work on Mthombo with China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, as diesel and gasoline imports rose on the back of economic expansion, with demand exceeding local refinery output for the first time in 2007. However, the plan needs restructuring as PetroSA’s finances are weak, Energy Department Deputy Director-General Tseliso Maqubela said last month, Bloomberg said.
The first of the new liquid bulk berths would be built at Ngqura next year, followed by another in Cape Town in 2019, four in Durban by 2031, and single facilities in Richards Bay in 2035 and Cape Town in 2038. A further four are planned for Richards Bay.
These would complement the existing 16 liquid bulk terminals - nine in Durban, two each in Richards Bay and Cape Town, and one in East London, Port Elizabeth and Saldanha.