Habari

50bn/- for new oil discharge facility

WORK on replacing the obsolete Single Point Mooring (SPM) in Dar es Salaam, which has been in bad condition for the past 20 years, is expected to start as soon as the tendering process, to begin next month, is completed.

CHARLES KIZIGHA


WORK on replacing the obsolete Single Point Mooring (SPM) in Dar es Salaam, which has been in bad condition for the past 20 years, is expected to start as soon as the tendering process, to begin next month, is completed.


An SPM is a system in which loading buoys are anchored offshore and serve as a mooring point for tankers to offload gas, oil and other fluid products.


The entire preparatory process and replacement work for the new SPM, a move expected to stabilise fuel prices in future, will take two years.


The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) has already approved a 50bn/- (about 40 million US dollars) for the project in which the existing SPM will be replaced with a new one.


The current SPM at Ras Mjimwema in Kigamboni has been in bad shape for the past 20 years as underwater pipelines have rusted by almost 50 per cent while overland ones have been leaking intermittently, prompting the need for periodic repairs.


TPA Director General Mr Ephraim Mgawe told the ‘Daily News’ over the weekend that TPA would implement the project under the Build-Transfer (BT). The entire process, including actual replacement work, will start next month and would be completed within two years.


He said that completion of the project would guarantee Indeni Refinery in Ndola, Zambia, with uninterrupted flow of crude oil currently passing through the 40-year-old rusty facility.


Mr Mgawe said that the new SPM would also cater for edible oil tankers with the capacity to carry over 120,000 tonnes in addition to the white products, an important factor in determining cost per unit of the products.


Edible oil and white product tankers had been discharging at the Kurasini Oil Jetty (KOJ) which handles vessels with the capacity of up to 50,000 tonnes, making the cost per unit slightly higher than imports coming in large volumes.


Mr Mgawe said under the BT option, a private firm would build the SPM and the seven-kilometre pipeline system (three kms of which would be submarine and four underground) from the facility to the Tanzania-Zambia Pipeline (TAZAMA) and Tanzania-Italian Petroleum Refinery (TIPER) tank farms.


The TPA chief said that the builder would transfer the project to TPA after agreeing on an amortisation schedule. TPA might decide to engage a private firm to operate the facility on agreeable terms, he added.


He said that nine (undisclosed) possible development partners (bidders) to finance the project have been short-listed through public invitation for expression of interest to develop the terminal and pipeline system.


Mr Mgawe said that a consultant for the project — Royal Haskoning Nederland B.V. of the Netherlands– has been appointed. Revised terms of reference entailing the scope of work have already been drawn and handed over and is expected to finish the assignment next month.


Source: Daily News

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