KwaZulu-Natal Business 2016-17 edition

OVERVIEW
Oil and gas
Oil and gas companies are exploring off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal.
SECTOR HIGHLIGHTS
• Statoil has acquired 35%
of oil exploration rights
in the Tugela South field.
• A gas-to-power project
is mooted for the
Richards Bay Industrial
Development Zone.
• Vopak has increased its
storage capacity.
• Sasol and Eni are working
together in offshore
exploration.
The search is on for oil off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Tugela
South is an area off the coast where exploration rights were
first granted to Impact Oil & Gas in 2011. Various studies have
been done and ExxonMobil came on board as a shareholder
and later, as operator in 2013: they were joined in 2015 by Statoil.
The Tugela South Exploration Right covers in the region of 2.8-
million acres and future rights encompass an additional 16-million
acres offshore (SAinfo).
Rhino Oil and Gas and Sungu Sungu Gas are also actively exploring
for oil and gas in the province, while Sasol has a three-year permit
to explore off the coast of the province. Sasol has signed a partnership
for Italian multinational company Eni to be the operator of the
exploration effort.
KwaZulu-Natal is home to two major oil refineries and is the first link
in the pipeline chain that connects the Gauteng province (the industrial
heartland of South Africa), with vital fuels. The Port of Durban handles
80% of South Africa's fuel imports. KwaZulu-Natal is thus a key player
in the country’s oil and gas industry.
Royal Vopak, which runs a large terminal at the Port of Durban, has
expanded capacity to 174 000m³ and is planning to grow its ability
to store fuel still further. It is also
planning a new storage facility
at Heidelberg that will cater for
petroleum and chemicals. Towns
along the N3 highway are increasingly
receiving investments in the
logistics sector.
Getting fuel to the province
of Gauteng is the key mission of
the new multi-purpose pipeline
(NMPP) which started delivering
fluids in early 2012, with the full
first phase coming on line a year
later.
The NMPP terminals allow
for greater flexibility in supply.
Refined products such as jet fuel,
sulphur diesel and both kinds of
octane petrol are carried. The infrastructure
of Transnet Pipelines
reportedly reduces the number
of fuel tankers on South African
roads by about 60%.
The liquid fuels and gas networks
of Transnet Pipelines trav-
KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2016/17
74