Cape Town - Construction of South Africa’s largest liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) storage facility will start early in 2013 and the plant
will be operational in late 2014, the project director said on Thursday.
The project, aimed at reducing LPG shortages that regularly
hit Africa’s largest economy, will cost about R1.2bn with imports coming from
the Middle East, Gulf of Guinea and Angola.
“We will be commissioning the facility at the end of
December 2014,” said Barthlo Harmse, of Sunrise Energy, the company developing
the site next to the Saldanha Bay port on the country’s west coast.
Sunrise
Energy is a joint venture between Ilitha Group and state-owned financier
Industrial Development Corporation.
South Africa is diversifying its energy mix away from
electricity to alleviate pressure on state utility Eskom, which is operating on
razor-thin capacity.
An estimated 3% of the country’s 49 million people use LPG
and the intention is to have an additional 1 million users over the next five
years.