CAPE TOWN, June 28 (Reuters) – Construction of South
Africa’s largest liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility
will start early in 2013 and the plant will be operational in
late 2014, the project director said on Thursday.
The project, aimed at reducing LPG shortages that regularly
hit Africa’s largest economy, will cost about 1.2 billion rand
($143 million), with imports coming from the Middle East, Gulf
of Guinea and Angola.
“We will be commissioning the facility at the end of
December 2014,” said Barthlo Harmse, of Sunrise Energy, the
company developing the site next to the Saldanha Bay port on the
country’s west coast. Sunrise Energy is a joint venture between
Ilitha Group and state-owned financier Industrial Development
Corporation.
South Africa is diversifying its energy mix away from
electricity to alleviate pressure on state utility Eskom, which
is operating on razor-thin capacity.
An estimated 3 percent of the country’s 49 million people
use LPG and the intention is to have an additional one million
users over the next five years.
($1 = 8.4068 South African rand)
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Jon Herskovitz and
David Goodman)
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