CONSTRUCTION of South Africa’s largest liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility will start in the beginning of 2013 and the plant is scheduled to be operational in late 2014. The project is aimed at reducing shortages of liquefied petroleum gas in the country and will cost about R1, 2bn; with imports coming from the Middle East, Gulf of Guinea and Angola.

Barthlo Harmse of Sunrise Energy, the company developing the site next to the Saldanha Bay port on the west coast, says they will be commissioning the facility at the end of December 2014. Sunrise Energy is a joint venture between Ilitha Group and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). South Africa is diversifying its energy mix away from electricity to alleviate pressure on Eskom, which is operating on razor-thin capacity.

An estimated 3% of the country’s 49-million people use liquefied petroleum gas and the intention is to have an additional 1-million users over the next five years.

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