All the stops are being pulled out to ensure the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) becomes Africa’s top oil and gas services and marine repair cluster. Laura Peinke, executive of the Saldanha Bay IDZ, told members of the Exporters’ Club Western Cape (ECWC) recently this was an achievable goal but that the country had a small window of opportunity in which to make it happen. “We have strong companies locally who can add significant value in servicing and repairs in the oil and gas sector. South African companies offer high quality repair work, equipment servicing and logistics services. With the right legislation and right environment we have the opportunity to become a major player in this regard, but the gap is now,” she said. “It is not always going to be there. This is an extremely competitive environment. With the Saldanha Bay IDZ being the only sectorspecific IDZ in the country it allows us the ability to focus our resources on understanding the oil and gas industry and its challenges and developing solutions to remove barriers and address issues while simultaneously having a positive impact on regional economic development and job creation.” Peinke said with relative proximity to the West and East African markets, the IDZ was ideally located to attract the growing number of rigs servicing the booming oil and gas industry in Africa, but it could even impact further. “We have been doing a lot of work for the Brazil market that prefers to bring its rigs here. So we see rigs coming from the Gulf of Mexico to South Africa to be repaired before going back. And this is something we must take into consideration as it costs a sizeable amount of money and the choice of port is therefore important.” Peinke said it was estimated that it cost around $500 000 a day to have a rig in port for repairs. “It is a big decision for these rig owners to then decide to use South African ports as opposed to heading to Europe or the East for their repairs.” Peinke said major inroads were being made in terms of legislation to ensure the smooth facilitation of servicing rigs, with major tax and customs benefits to companies choosing South Africa. “We are going to see more development in South Africa around the oil and gas sector as it is a growing industry where we can add value and gain economic benefit.” INSERT & CAPTION (Photo: Halden Krog We have strong companies locally who can add significant value in servicing and repairs in the oil and gas sector. – Laura Peinke
