Ngquara Liquid Bulk Terminal New Construction in South Africa

South Africa has commenced with the groundbreaking ceremony at the Port of Ngqura’s upcoming liquid bulk tank terminal and foremost road access that welcomes the start of construction.

Speaking during the  groundbreaking ceremony, Mkhuseli Faku, Chairman of Oiltanking Grindrod Calulo (Pty) Ltd (OTCALULO) said new tank terminal is anticipated to provide storage and marine infrastructure to support the overall petroleum demand estimations for South Africa.

“Having been awarded the concession to develop a liquid bulk storage and handling facility in the Port of Ngqura, OTCALULO is now embarking on the first phase of construction,” said Mkhuseli Faku.

New Ngqura liquid bulk terminal

The capacity of the Port of Ngqura’s liquid bulk for commodities such as petroleum, diesel, jet fuel, illuminated paraffin and liquid petroleum gas will develop by the new tank terminal. It was allocated 20 Ha and will be constructed to the highest international safety standards and yield extraordinary service to its customers.The project comes ahead of the planned decommissioning and rehabilitation of the persisting liquid bulk facilities at the connecting Port of Port Elizabeth, which will open the way for Ngqura’s inception as a brand new petroleum trading hub for Southern Africa.

Once it is functional, the terminal will facilitate substantially higher through puts over current capacity handled at Port Elizabeth due to Ngqura’s deeper draught which permits it to handle much larger vessels.The terminal will be sketched to shelter vessel sizes of up to 100,000 dead weight tonnage and will include inter-tank re-circulation facilities, road loading facilities, stock accounting in real-time, office facilities for customers and an independent laboratory.

Liquid bulk products

The modern facility will service the oil majors, new path way into the South African oil industry as well as international traders and all supporting the local shipping industry. Liquid mass products will be shipped to the Port of Ngqura and piped to the tank terminal prior to local supply and/or local and global re-export.

Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA), who are supplying the port infrastructure for the liquid bulk terminal, has now completed Phase 1 of the infrastructure required to service the site, including the detailed design of the new port entrance plaza and the new main access road, as well as the pipeline servitude that will form the link between the new tank terminal and the port.

The port official in charge will contribute to the 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.

It is forecasted that about 500 local job opportunities will be created during the construction phase of the project. About 50 permanent staff will be required for the terminal. The facility is expected to commence operations at the end of 2020.