Civil Engineering September 2022 | Vol 30 No 8

50 September 2022 Civil Engineering Q Q Issuing of licences for the construction and operation of petroleum pipeline facilities. Q Q Gathering information on all petro- leum pipelines activities throughout the country to assist with planning and to ensure orderly infrastructure distribution as well as development and security of supply. The applicable regulations to pipelines are: Q Q Gas Act 48 of 2001 Q Q The Petroleum Pipelines Act 60 of 2003 (Gazette 28123 of 21 October 2005) Q Q National Energy Regulator Act 40 of 2004 (Gazette 28044 of 15 September 2005) Q Q National Ports Act 12 of 2005 Q Q Piped Gas Regulation of 2007 Q Q Gas Act Rules 2009 Q Q Regulations in Terms of the Petroleum Act 60 of 2003, updated to 28 August 2015 Q Q Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill (UPRD). In terms of the National Ports Act, any facilities on land within a port or port’s limits at sea must follow chapter 6 or chapter 10 of the Act. The National Ports Authority may enter into an agreement with any person for the period to design, construct, rehabilitate, develop, finance, maintain, or operate a port terminal or port facility. In this respect, the National Ports Authority issues a licence for the installation of the facility and a Terminal Operator Licence to operate the licence. The National Ports Authority oversees the terminal operator in terms of the efficiency of the operator, the safety of the operation and the regular maintenance of the assets. Within the limits of a port, the National Ports Authority is responsible for equipment and pipelines. It must be noted that, in the National Ports Act, leases are given to terminal operators on a competitive basis. When the lease expires, the lease can be extended, or the terminal operator can choose not to renew its lease. In the latter, all removable equipment can be removed from the site by the terminal operator. The rest of the infrastructure reverts to the National Ports Authority on its asset base. Thus, every private pipeline installation within a port’s precinct reverts to the National Ports Authority as the owner, unless other ar- rangements have been negotiated. SALDANHA BAY OFFSHORE AND ONSHORE SFF pipeline from the port to storage facilities The licence holder and terminal operator of liquid bulk in the Port of Saldanha is the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF). It operates all liquid bulk products to and from Saldanha Bay. The crude pipelines owned and operated by SFF run from Berth 101 on the jetty, through the port’s limit and overland to the strategic concrete 45-million-barrel crude oil tanks. The length of these pipelines is 8.35 km with diameters of 1 067 mm and 508 mm. This facility was commissioned in 1981 and is a National Key Point. Inspection of the pipeline is the responsibility of SFF, subject to oversight by the National Ports Authority from the terminal on the jetty to the boundary of the port limits. The pipeline was last inspected in 2009 and an enquiry (RFP) was issued to the industry on 5 May 2021 for intelligent pigging. OilTanking MOGS (OTMS) pipelines from the port to storage facilities (private) The OilTanking MOGS (OTMS) storage is for crude oil and crude oil blending. The OTMS crude pipelines are 11 km long with diameters of 1 067 mm and 508 mm and run from Berth 101 in the Saldanha Bulk Liquids jetty to the OTMS storage facilities following the SFF pipeline route. At the SFF storage tank area the pipelines proceed around the SFF storage tanks to the OTMS storage facility. There is also a tie-in to the 655 m long SFF/Astron pipeline to Milnerton. This pipeline was commissioned in 2020. Sunrise Energy LPG Terminal (private) The Sunrise Energy LPG Import Terminal has been designed for the import of LPG, propane and butane, with the final product dispatched as odourised or unodourised. Ocean-going tankers carrying LPG are able to berth at a multi-buoy mooring point (MBM) located in the Port of Saldanha, which is connected via a 16-inch, 3 km subsea plus 2 km overland pipeline to the Sunrise Energy Receiving Terminal, located onshore. This MBM can receive pressurised, semi-refrigerated or refrigerated carriers (using discharge heaters). The moorings are located in water deep enough to handle ships with a loaded draft of 10.4 m. The licence holder and terminal operator of the liquid bulk facilities in the Figure 2 Depiction of the OTMS crude pipelines