Oil and gas supply base back on track

The Universal Africa
Lines (UAL) oil and
gas supply centre at
Saldanha Bay – an
investment of hundreds
of millions – is back on
track, according to UAL
commercial shipping
manager, Annalize
Krause.
This project was put
on hold after Transnet
National Ports Authority
(TNPA) failed to live
up to the conditions laid
down in the original
contract with UAL – the
preferred bidder for two
sections of land on either
side of a berthing quay
under a 15-year lease –
and negotiations with the
Transnet subsidiary had
become bogged down in
red tape.
But, Krause told
FTW, after company CE
Roger Jungblut wrote a
letter to the TNPA CE
Tau Morwe indicating
that it would withdraw
from the project, TNPA
had scrambled to repair its
damaged relationship with
the Dutch-based shipping
company. UAL then had
what she described as “a
positive meeting” with
TNPA representatives,
and she indicated that
UAL had now returned
to its original plan
to develop the oil and gas
supply base.
If the negotiations had
failed, the project would
have returned to the
tender stage – a process
that would have added at
least two years to the time
schedule, and would have
forced UAL to look for
another alternative base for
servicing the African oil and
gas industries.
“But we now have a team
working on the project,”
Krause added, “and options
are being considered and
discussed to ensure that we
fit in with the regulations
laid down by TNPA.”
The role that the new oil
and gas base will provide
is an extensive area for
major suppliers to use as a
stockholding service centre
– strategically placed in
reasonable proximity to the
African region’s oil industry,
mainly in West Africa.
UAL intends to transform
a section of the Saldanha
Bay harbour and emerging
industrial development zone
(IDZ) into an oil and gas
servicing hub.