LOCATION
The Sunrise Energy Terminal is located in the Port of Saldanha, which is approximately 150 km from Cape Town. It is an easily accessible port for ocean-going LPG tankers transporting LPG from the Indian and Atlantic coasts of Africa. It is also accessible to supply from the Middle East, Gulf of Mexico and the US.
The Terminal is furthermore well located for the transport of LPG by road to the central markets of Cape Town and further afield to the Northern, Eastern Cape, Free State and even Namibia and Botswana.
OVERVIEW
The Sunrise Energy LPG Import Terminal has been designed under license for the import of LPG, Propane and Butane, with the product dispatched as odourised or unodourised product (depending on its final application).
Ocean-going tankers carrying LPG are able to berth at a safe and world-class Multi-Buoy Mooring Point (MBM) located in the Port of Saldanha, which is connected via a 5km pipeline to the Sunrise Energy Receiving Terminal, located onshore. This MBM can receive pressurised, semi-refrigerated or refrigerated carriers (using discharge heaters) of 3,000 to 20,000 Gross Tonnage (MT) in size. The moorings are located in water which is deep enough to handle ships with a loaded draft of 10.4 m and an overall length (LoL) of between 97 and 174 m.
The first phase of the current Sunrise Energy Terminal has a receiving or working storage capacity of 5,500 metric tonne LPG, in the form of five mounded pressurised storage bullets. A monthly throughput capacity in excess of 17,500 MT per month can be achieved through these facilities.
The facility has been specifically designed for this capacity to ensure that Sunrise can receive shipments of up to 5,000 MT, meaning that shipping costs per MT of LPG are optimised. Receiving smaller parcels is often inefficient and costlier, therefore the aggregation of customer import volumes is essential in ensuring that import costs are kept as low as possible.
Once LPG is received into the storage bullets, the product is tested to ensure that it is compliant with South African National Standards (SANS).
Product is then odourised and dispatched from the facility via road tanker to the market. Product can be directly loaded from the bullets into road tankers at loading gantries, which have been carefully designed with fully automated systems to ensure quick and safe loading.
A cylinder facility is located adjacent to the Terminal to supply LPG to the local domestic market. This is operated by an independent BBBEE company, Kusile Gas, as part of Sunrise Energy’s enterprise development programme.
Sunrise Energy has designed the Terminal in a modular manner to grow with the market over the next 30 years, under its concession from the government. The design includes room for expansion via Phases 2 and 3, which will ultimately enable Sunrise Energy to receive shipping parcels of up to 16,500 MT. This means that approximately 52,000 MT or more per month of LPG can be supplied to the market via the Sunrise Energy Import Terminal once the facility has been expanded to its full design capacity.
SAFETY IN DESIGN
Sunrise Energy has been designed to the highest safety standards, complying with both national and international legislation. The following Safety-in-Design principles have been utilised in the design and construction of the terminal:
- The mounding of the LPG storage bullets to protect against Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosions (BLEVEs).
- Design and fabrication of the bullets according to the pressure vessel code ASME VIII Div 2.
- Automated Emergency Shutdown System and Fire System, which is automatically activated if a fire is detected. Firefighting systems are design to meet and exceed international National Fire Protection Association standards.
- Automated gas and fire detection systems throughout the plant process areas.
- High-integrity Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS).
- No venting of hydrocarbons, with recovery of all vapours via a vapour recovery system.
- Fully automated bullet transfer sequences and product loading preventing operator error.
SERVICES
The Sunrise Energy Terminal offers the following terminal services to customers:
- Vessel vetting
- Management of ship discharges
- Testing and custody metering of discharged product
- Blending and odourisation of LPG to South African National Standards (SANS) specifications
- Laboratory services for testing and product quality verification
- Customer management systems and stock monitoring and reporting
- Road tanker loading services, including truck and driver database, ticketing systems, and custody metering by means of weighbridges.
PRODUCT QUALITY
Product is sampled and tested on the ship before it is offloaded, during offloading and again before it is batched and dispatched to truck. This provides our clients and their customers with assurance that product is always within the relevant SANS1774 specification parameters.
Only unodourised product is received into the Terminal from the ship, which provides flexibility in the product use, enabling both odourised or unodourised product to be dispatched from the Terminal.
Any product which is utilised for domestic or commercial purposes will be stenched (with ethyl mercaptan) at the loading gantries as the product is loaded onto the road tankers. This is a critical safety precaution to add the distinctive “gas smell” to the product.