Construction works on the new Ngqura liquid bulk terminal in South Africa is on track with commissioning of the new liquid bulk tank set for late 2020. Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) and Oil Tanking Grindrod Calulo Holdings(OTGC) reported the progress.
According to TNPA, who are providing the port infrastructure for the liquid bulk terminal, Zingce Environmental Solutions has completed environmental search and rescue activities after they were awarded the contract in November last year. Additional environmental services were also undertaken by Keokoma.
Some of the environmental activities conducted to prepare the site for construction included removal of indigenous and endangered plants and animals. About 6000 plant species were rescued and relocated to temporary nursery sites and other protected spaces available on site between 2016 and 2018. In addition about 1567 plants of 41 different species were successfully relocated as well as various reptiles, mammals and insects.
On the other side OTGC completed the archaeology report on the site while bulk earthworks, palaeontology inspections and platform preparation are ongoing and the three main construction work packages have also been awarded.
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New Ngqura liquid bulk terminal
The new tank terminal will develop the Port of Ngqura’s liquid bulk capacity for commodities such as petroleum, diesel, jet fuel, illuminated paraffin and liquid petroleum gas. It was allocated 20 Ha and will be built to the highest international safety standards and provide exceptional service to its customers.
The project comes ahead of the planned decommissioning and rehabilitation of the existing liquid bulk facilities at the neighboring Port of Port Elizabeth, which will pave the way for Ngqura’s establishment as a new petroleum trading hub for Southern Africa.
Once operational, the terminal will facilitate substantially increased through puts over present volumes handled at Port Elizabeth due to Ngqura’s deeper draught which allows it to handle much larger vessels.
The terminal will be designed to accommodate vessel sizes of up to 100,000 dead weight tonnage and will include road loading facilities, inter-tank re circulation facilities, stock accounting in real-time, office facilities for customers and an independent laboratory.
Liquid bulk products
The new modern facility will service the oil majors, new entrants into the South African oil industry as well as international traders and all supporting the local shipping industry. Liquid bulk products will be transported to the Port of Ngqura via ship and piped to the tank terminal prior to local supply and/or local and global re-export.
The port authority will provide infrastructure for the new OTCALULO tank terminal by equipping Berth B100 to function as a liquid bulk berth. It will also construct a new access road from the tank terminal to the berth. TNPA will provide all the associated services and construct a new port entrance on the eastern side of the Couga River.
