MOSSEL BAY NEWS - The Mossel Bay Municipality executive management on Friday, 29 March, met with Transnet National Ports Authority's newly appointed acting chief executive officer, Nozipho Mdawe, and a number of the Port of Mossel Bay's top executive, and the operations manager of the gas to liquid refinery at PetroSA, Michael Nene, to discuss the way forward with the Brulpadda project.
Mossel Bay is ideally situated to offer offshore facilities and services to global energy giant Total following the significant gas condensate discovery on the Brulpadda prospects, yet a number of concerns need to be addressed.
Timeframe
"There is but a five to six year horizon to get ready for production," Nene advised. He urged that some form of commitment should be obtained from Total to use Mossel Bay's infrastructure for its endeavours to determine the way forward.
Some of challenges at the port, as well as detailed plans to address it were discussed, among others the need for after hours access to port facilities for vessels and crew, sufficient bunkering and the challenges involved in making fuel available upon request, the availability of land for storage within the port boundaries, and the insufficient depth of the harbour which may prevent certain vessels access to the required facilities.
Board appraised
Mdawe proposed that a technical task team be formed to address these and other concerns.
Further and regular meetings will take place between the stakeholders to ensure that everything possible is done to ensure that Total will be welcomed in Mossel Bay.
Mdawe indicated that she would, at their next meeting in May, present in detail to the TNPA board the plans Mossel Bay has to optimise on the opportunities the Brulpadda project may offer, and the important role the port would play in facilitating this.
Total will be drilling further wells to determine the fuller potential of the gas and oil available for exploitation on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin, 175 kilometres off Mossel Bay.
During the exploration phase, the port's role involved providing land and quay space for the logistics base operations, as well as marine services such as piloting, berthing, craft services and vessel and traffic control, to the vessels involved in the exploration work.
Mossel Bay may be the smallest of TNPA's commercial ports on the South African coast, yet it is the only one that operates two offshore mooring points within port limits.
The stakeholders who met with Transnet National Ports Authority's newly appointed acting chief executive officer, Ms Nozipho Mdawe (fifth from left) to discuss the Brulpadda project, are Shadrack Tshikalange (port manager), Moshe Motlohi (TNPA), Gert Ludick (TNPA), acting mayor Councillor Dirk Kotzé, municipal manager Adv Thys Giliomee, Shirley Schmidt, Sithembiso Soyaya (TNPA), Vuyokazi Sabani (TNPA), Errol Baartman (TNPA) and PetroSA operations manager Michael Nene.Photo: Steve D'Elboux
The stakeholders who met with Transnet National Ports Authority's acting chief executive officer, Nozipho Mdawe (fourth from right) to discuss the Brulpaddan project, are Moshe Motlohi (TNPA), Gert Ludick (TNPA) Errol Baartman (TNPA) Shadrack Tshikalange (Port Manager), acting mayor councillor Dirk Kotzé, municipal manager Adv Thys Giliomee, Shirley Schmidt and PetroSA operations manager Michael Nene.
Several stakeholders met on Friday, 29 March to discuss the way forward with the exciting Brulpadda project. Transnet National Ports Authority's newly appointed acting chief executive officer, Nozipho Mdawe (middle) indicated that she would present in detail to the TNPA board the plans Mossel Bay has to optimise on the opportunities that the Brulpadda project may offer. Photo: Nickey le Roux
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