Civil Engineering September 2022 | Vol 30 No 8

Civil Engineering September 2022 55 viability, the portion of the DJP between Durban and Pietermaritzburg can be repurposed to supply gas to the greater Pietermaritzburg industrial areas. Jet fuel pipeline Aviation turbine fuel is a commodity known as Avtur or jet fuel. Currently, a dedicated 94 km pipeline transports jet fuel from the NATREF refinery in Sasolburg to ORTIA east of Johannesburg. The demand on the dedicated jet fuel pipeline is dependent on the production at NATREF (supplemented by synthetic jet fuel from Secunda) rather than demand at ORTIA. The line currently operates close to its maximum capacity and will continue to run at this operating capacity into the foreseeable future. The installed capacity of the pipeline is 1.3 billion litres per annum. Jameson Park can also supply jet fuel to ORTIA in a separate pipeline (65.8 km long; 10-inch diameter). Crude oil pipeline (COP) The COP was commissioned in 1971 to transport crude oil from Durban to the in- land crude refinery NATREF in Sasolburg, as well as to the coal mines in Ogies (Kendal node) as part of the then strategic reserves. A reconfiguration of the 18-inch crude and 16-inch DWP systems were done with the introduction of methane rich gas. The reconfigured COP (580 km) consists of a 16-inch section and an 18-inch section. Capacity was increased during 2002, triggered by the NATREF refinery ca- pacity expansion, by adding five in-route (booster) pump stations, which gave the pipeline sufficient capacity to meet cur- rent and anticipated future demand. With the introduction of the Clean Fuels 1 programme in 2006, NATREF’s refining capability was effectively reduced, resulting in unused capacity of approximately 100 m 3 /hour in the COP. With the introduction of the Clean Fuels 2 programme, currently promulgated, it is expected that NATREF would increase production to nameplate capacity and the COP would again operate at design capacity. The current installed capacity of the COP is 7.3 billion ℓ/annum. This pipeline moves crude imported through the SBM via the NATCOS tank farm in Durban to Sasolburg to feed the NATREF refinery. It is owned and operated by Transnet Pipelines and is in constant operation to ensure the steady operation of NATREF. Gas pipelines The Lilly pipeline (16-inch) runs from Secunda to Durban via Empangeni and is owned and operated by Transnet Pipelines. Initially built to transport refined product from the coast to the inland region, it was not in use for many years and, as a result, was converted to transport methane rich gas from Sasol’s Secunda operation to cus- tomers in Mpumalanga and the KwaZulu- Natal coast (Richards Bay and Durban). The maximum capacity of this pipeline is 23 million GJ/annum. New multi-product pipeline (MPP24) The new multi-product pipeline (MPP24 – 825 km), a 24-inch trunk line, is in full operation with a capacity of 148 Mℓ/ week. The line is capable of transporting two diesel grades (D10 and D50) and two unleaded petrol grades (93 and 95) as well as jet fuel between the Durban harbour (TM1) and Jameson Park (TM2) terminals. The overall NMPP project also included a 16-inch multi-product pipeline from Kendal to Waltloo and a 16-inch multi-product pipeline from Jameson Park to Alrode. Refined products pipelines Transnet Pipelines operates a network of pipelines north of its Jameson Park Figure 14 Refined product pipeline routes Figure 15 Existing gas network in South Africa