Independent tank storage group Vopak, of the Netherlands, has completed the first phase of an expansion project at its Durban Island View operations, raising its fuel storage capacity to 174 000 m³.

By the third quarter of 2016, Vopak South Africa, which is 30% owned by black-empowerment company Reatile Chemicals, expects to complete a subsequent phase, resulting in its Durban capacity rising to 234 000 m³.

Based on an average car tank size of 50 l, the new storage capacity will have a capacity equivalent to filling more than 4.6-million cars.

Vopak South Africa MD Erik Kleine will not be drawn on the value of the investments, but indicates that the projects have been driven by growing demand for petroleum products, as well as by the outcomes of the 2006 Moerane Report that identified the need for improvements to South Africa’s fuel storage and transport infrastructure.

It also follows the commissioning, by Transnet, of the new multiproduct pipeline from Durban to Gauteng.

The company, which has been in South Africa for over 20 years, is also conducting a feasibility studies into a terminal at Lesedi near Heidelberg, in Gauteng, as well as a multiproduct chemicals terminal in Richards Bay, in KwaZulu-Natal, which could include a liquefied petroleum gas storage facility.

“Market demand would determine future investments,” Kleine tells Engineering News Online, adding that the company is also considering a role in the development of South Africa’s gas-to-power market, which is likely to rely initially on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“Our partner Reatile is already active in the natural gas business and Vopak itself also has constructed and is operating a number of LNG facilities around the world.”

Owing to land limitations at the Port of Durban, Vopak is replacing 19 smaller tanks with eight larger storage units.

“We have just completed and inaugurated our first expansion project ‘Fuel 2’ and this has brought the current storage capacity to 174 000 m³. In the third quarter of 2016 we will complete another phase in our expansion, ‘Fuel 3’, which will bring the total storage capacity to 234 000 m³.”