Deck Cargo Ship Brings Storage Bullets to Port of Richards Bay LPG Facility

The Tranglory Shipping-operated deck cargo ship Xin Si Lu has shipped four liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage bullets for the Port of Richards Bay LPG facility.

The 12,700 dwt ship delivered the 5,650 ton bullets to Transnet National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) Port of Richards Bay on September 12.

According to AIS data from MarineTraffic, the ship got underway from China’s Port of Zhongshan for South Africa on August 6.

The storage bullets will be part of the ZAR 1 billion (USD 68.3 million), 22,600-ton capacity mounded LPG facility which is being developed at the port by Bidvest Tank Terminals (BTT), a unit of the Bidvest Group.

The terminal will store LPG on behalf of independent LPG trader Petredec, which ships the fuel from the U.S. and the Middle East.

Construction began in October 2018 and the facility is expected to become operational in 2020. It would enable the Port of Richards Bay to cater for ships that trade, transport, store and distribute LPG.

TNPA has said it intends to use the ports as vehicles not only for storage and distribution, but also for access and transformation to ensure the sustainability of the country’s energy sector.

Transnet is also planning a multi-million dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and regasification terminal at the Port of Richards Bay and is looking for private sector partners to invest in and operate the facility. The state-owned company recently signed a cost-sharing agreement for a feasibility study with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), which has committed USD 2 million to the study.

The Richards Bay Natural Gas Network (NGN) project will complement the delivery of LNG to new markets in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces through the ports of Ngqura and Saldanha Bay respectively, and will support government’s future gas-to-power projects. Meanwhile, at the Port of Ngqura, TNPA is establishing an additional petroleum trading hub for Southern Africa through a new liquid bulk terminal being developed by Oil Tanking Grindrod Calulo (OTGC).