NEW CAPACITY New facility has the capacity to fill about 400 cylinders during an eight-hour shift
Photo by: Duane Daws
Encouraged by the industrial and tourism potential of Port Elizabeth and driven by its partnership with gas company Air Products, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplier and distributor Reatile Gaz officially opened a new LPG depot and cylinder filling facility in Nelson Mandela Bay earlier this month.
The newly built facility, with an initial storage capacity of 45 000 ℓ and the capacity to fill about 400 cylinders during an eight-hour shift, will act as a distribution facility, supplying cylinders directly to customers, while also offering backup bulk storage facilities.
Reatile Gaz would initially distribute about 75 t/m of LPG, but would increase this to 150 t/m over the next 18 months, Reatile Gaz GM Roger Rudd told Engineering News.
He added that distribution from the facility had already started with about 7 t of LPG distributed over the past week.
Currently, the Port Elizabeth facility employed eight people, with the potential to increase employee numbers as the plant became more established.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Reatile Gaz chairperson Simphiwe Mehlomakulu commented that the company had been encouraged by the positive economic growth prospects in the Eastern Cape, and specifically in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“Developing the gas supply market within a growing region makes business sense,” he noted.
He added that, through Reatile Gaz’s partnership with Air Products – having acquired its LPG business in 2009 and being the exclusive supplier and distributor of LPG to Air Products and its customers – the company’s expansion plans were fast-tracked, especially in light of Air Products’ new air separation unit in the Coega industrial development zone, which would be commissioned in the fourth quarter of this year.
Air Products South Africa GM Josua le Roux said there was growing demand for the reliable supply of LPG and, through Air Products’ partnership with Reatile Gaz, it was looking to bring long-term security of supply to the Eastern Cape region.
“New levels of security of supply will unlock economic and social potential in the region,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Rudd said that, in the longer term, the company hoped to add another 800 000 ℓ of capacity to the Port Elizabeth facility, which would allow Reatile Gaz to rail LPG to the plant, where it could then be decanted and distributed on a larger scale.
He noted that this potential expansion had been taken into consideration when Reatile Gaz bought the property and, therefore, there was space on the existing premises to accommodate the expansion.
In addition to the newly established Port Elizabeth facility, Reatile Gaz, a division of broad-based black economic-empowerment company Reatile Group, also had storage and distribution facilities in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.