Civil Engineering September 2022 | Vol 30 No 8

54 September 2022 Civil Engineering terminal at Wentworth, adjacent to the refinery, so they are still operational. Shell and BP, the owners of the SAPREF re- finery, announced that the refinery would cease operations as of March 2022. RICHARDS BAY ONSHORE (PRIVATE) Bidvest Tank Terminals and Petredec have commissioned a pipeline from the bulk liquid jetty to the LPG storage facility in the Port of Richards Bay. The plant was commissioned in 2020 and the 12-inch pipelines are in operation. TRANSNET PIPELINES Transnet Pipelines was established in 1965 and has experience in the operation and maintenance of petroleum pipelines. The company fulfils a strategic role in the supply chain of petroleum products in South Africa, ensuring supply of product on demand from its oil industry customers in the industrial heartland. Over the years, Transnet has continuously expanded and reconfigured the pipeline network to keep abreast of capacity demands. The pipelines cover the eastern part of South Africa from KwaZulu-Natal to the Free State, North-West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga and supply crude and refined petroleum products to the industrial hubs of South Africa. Crude and refined products are imported to Durban which ensures the shortest distance to the hinterland. The overall network of pipelines is shown in Figure 13 to provide an outline of the pipelines service, the oil industry and customers. Durban-Johannesburg pipeline (DJP) During the 1960s the existing railway lines from Durban and Mozambique did not have sufficient capacity to meet the demand of the Gauteng hinterland for re- fined petroleum products. By 1965 a multi- product 12-inch pipeline, generally known as the Durban Johannesburg pipeline (DJP), was constructed. The pipeline has reached the end of its technical and economic life and has been replaced by a new 24-inch multi-product pipeline (MPP24). The DJP, which has been decom- missioned, had an operating capacity of 3.72 billion ℓ/annum. The integrity of the line was poor, which one of the reasons for building the MPP24. The alternative uses for the asset, in- cluding associated infrastructure, are cur- rently under consideration. It is envisaged that, subject to the demand validation and Figure 11 Schematic layout of the SBM buoy and pipeline to the refinery Figure 12 Route of the pipeline from the bulk liquid terminal to the Bidvest Storage Facility Figure 13 Transnet pipelines in South Africa