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Cape Town - As happens almost every year at this time, South Africa is suffering from a gas shortage.
Mark Radford, head of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at Afrox, one of the largest gas distributors in South Africa, said gas demand surged over the past two weeks nationwide as the winter cold crept in.
Radford said the Western Cape, especially, experienced stock constraints over the past two weeks because of severe gas shortages at both Chevron and PetroSA.
“We expect the situation to return to normal over the next few days as inventory levels recover. Afrox has stable supplies outside the Western Cape, and we do not foresee any shortages unless there are unplanned shutdowns in refineries,” said Radford.
The production of LPG at the Chevron refinery in Milnerton was recently limited due to the planned shutdown of the refinery for mandatory maintenance.
Gas supply at PetroSA’s Mossel Bay plant was also limited.
Suzanne Pullinger, spokesperson for Chevron SA, confirmed there were gas shortages due to unplanned closures the week before last at the units at the Milnerton refinery. Gas production partially resumed at the beginning of last week and was back on track.
Pieter Coetzee, head of Sunrise Energy, said PetroSA’s LPG production gradually decreased and, because of the higher demand for gas in the northern provinces, it was not worth their while for distributors to send their stock to the Cape.
Coetzee said the current demand for gas in the Western Cape was between 8 500 tons to 10 000 tons a month. An estimated 3 500 tons of gas were imported a month by road to the Western Cape.
Afrox expected to enter between 6 000 tons and 9 000 tons of extra LPG into the market this year, apart from the imported inventory it had stored for emergencies.
Radford said imported gas was expensive compared with that from local refineries, and Afrox imported just enough gas to cover expected shortages because the import costs of the regulated price could not be recovered.
He said ever more people were beginning to switch to gas due to load shedding. “We see a growing interest in LPG from large users. A good example is new housing that uses LPG as its primary energy source for cooking and heating.”
Gerry Franks, owner of Parow Industria Multigas, which delivers gas to hotels and restaurants, said it also supplied gas to the public but had to turn people away over the past few days because it did not get enough stock from its providers.
The demand for gas traditionally increases in winter, when people who don’t normally use gas for lighting and cooking use gas heaters.
Franken said that the shortage did not mean that gas companies could now make more money because of the greater gas demand. “We actually lose money because, instead of a delivery a week, we now have to drive to a customer two to three times to fill the order.”
An enormous gas tank is being manufactured to store gas at Sunrise Energy’s gas-import facilities, which are under construction at the Port of Saldanha Bay. The tank is 7m high and 74m long.
It could be completed by November 2016 if all goes according to plan.
The project involves a floating buoy point, where LPG ships in the harbour can moor to off-load gas. It is then taken to land through a pipeline for mixing before it is distributed.
Sunrise Energy CEO Pieter Coetzee said this would ensure that gas distributors in the Western Cape could more easily do imports and the current shortages would no longer exist.
Karen Rowe, project development manager, said the facilities would be open to any gas importer, distributor or consumer.
In the first phase, up to 17 500 tons of gas will be able to be delivered a month. There will be a reservoir for storing 5 500 tons.
The project can also be expanded to eventually provide storage for 16 500 tons. It will have an input capacity of 52 000 tons a month.
When the Sunrise project is fully operational, it could replace more than 1 200MW in power capacity, which will ease Eskom’s load, especially during peak hours.
Liquefied petroleum gas (butane and propane) is a by-product in the oil-refining process and, in the process, gas (methane) is converted to fuel. It is heavier than air and has a higher energy content than natural gas.
The closing of a refinery has also knocked supplies
One of the enormous gas tanks manufactured to store gas at Sunrise Energy’s gas import facilities that are under construction at Saldanha. The tank is 7m high and 74m long.
Sunrise Energy is building import facilities for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at the Port of Saldanha. It could be completed by November 2016 if all goes according to plan.
The project involves a floating buoy point where LPG ships in the harbour can moor to offload gas. It is then taken to land through a pipeline for mixing before it is distributed.
This will ensure that gas distributors in the Western Cape can more easily import gas. The current shortages will then no longer exist, believes CEO of Sunrise Energy Pieter Coetzee.
Karen Rowe, project development manager, said the facilities will be open to any gas importer, distributor or -consumer.
In the first phase up to 17 500 tons of gas will be able to be delivered per month. There will be a reservoir for storing 5500 tonnes.
The project can also be expanded to eventually provide storage for 16 500 tons. It will have an input capacity of 52 000 tons per month.
When the Sunrise project is fully operational, it could replace more than 1200 MW power capacity, which will ease Eskom’s load, especially during peak hours.
Liquefied petroleum gas (butane and propane) is a by-product in the oil refining process and in the process gas (methane) is converted to fuel. It is heavier than air and has a higher energy content than natural gas.
