Energy firm cuts gas off-loading time from gas tankers at Dar port

The leading company in importation and supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for both commercial and domestic consumption has seen it investing $2.4million (5.77bn/-).

Addressing journalists last Friday on a special visit at the company’s depot in Kigamboni district of Dar es Salaam, Eng. Steven Soka, Oryx Energies project manager said that on 17th June 2023 the company commissioned the pipeline for receiving gas from the Kigamboni Oil Jet (KOJ) to its depot.

Soka said Oryx has invested the money in construction of the gas receiving pipeline covering 2.8 kilometers with a diameter of 10 inches. According to him, the new pipeline is intended at reducing gas off-loading time and costs incurred during waiting time by tanker owners.

The company had since 2015 received LPG gas at its depot by using a pipeline with a diameter of six-inches.

“In a space of one week, we have come to realize that off-loading time has been cut short as intended from the investment. For instance, it used to take 30 hours to off-load a tanker with 2,500 metric tons of gas which has been cut short to 20 hours,” said Soka.

According to him, this is the first phase of the company’s infrastructure expansion that focuses on strengthening reception capacity whereas phase two will cover storage capacity.

“From now on if there is a need of maintenance for either of the pipelines one shall be operational as compared to prior this investment when activities were forced to stop for days to give room for maintenance,” said Soka.

He said at its Kurasini depot, the company has constructed a gas sphere which stores a maximum of 3200 metric tons of LPG waiting to be filled into gas cylinders of different volumes for both domestic and industrial consumption.

Soka said the completion of the pipeline construction that started in December 2022 paves a way for the construction of a new gas storage sphere with a capacity of 4,000 metric tons.

The plan which is already on the pipeline will see the company handling storage spheres with a capacity of 7,200 metric tons.

“Apart from spheres the company has also constructed two bullets with a storage capacity of 125 metric tons of LPG. These investments are likely to have a direct impact on final consumers by guaranteeing quick and easy access to gas in rural areas,” said Soka.