Orion oil tank project at Coega on track

● Progress in development of carbon black storage facility

Significant progress has been made on the Orion Engineered Carbons (OEC) oil tank project located inside Coega’s Special Economic Zone.

OEC is a worldwide supplier of carbon black, a material with many industrial applications including the production of rubber tyres, inks, dyes and paints, among other things.

It has been a year since the announcement of OEC’s investment, with the expected completion of the heavy fuel oil (HFO) storage facility scheduled for later this year.

Coega project manager Christo Beukes said the project had been progressing without any major incidents, but it had faced its fair share of challenges due to adverse weather, with storm-category gale-force winds causing damage to one of the tanks.

“With the wind, the lifting of each steel shell plate, 12 metres long and 2.4 metres high, with plate thickness varying from 20mm to 8mm, posed challenges to the contractor,” he said.

OEC MD Nomfundo Faltein expressed the company’s delight with the project’s progress.

“We are delighted with the progress made on the tank project.

“It has been such a pleasure to work with Beukes, who has provided status updates to the Orion team on a weekly basis, sharing openly the challenges and delays experienced during the project, with a view to promoting timely resolution and continued co-operation

between all stakeholders involved.

“As Orion, we are grateful for the support received from the Coega Development Corporation.

“The continued existence of Orion in SA supplying the rubber industries with carbon black, as well as maintaining the jobs in the supply chain, depend on this project,” Faltein said.

The OEC oil tank farm project entailed the development of two 18,000m³ tanks for the storage of carbon black feedstock oil, which is used in the manufacturing of tyres, among other high-performance applications.

Each of the tanks has a total

of 80 shell plates, totalling 19.2m in height and weighing a total mass of 289 tonnes per tank.

A 5.4km pipeline from the Coega harbour to the new storage facility was also constructed to pump the HFO from cargo vessels docked offshore.

Once operational, the OEC oil tank farm project will stimulate the entire value chain of the automotive sector and increase exports from SA to Europe.

OEC imports raw materials from the US, performs highvalue manufacturing in Nelson Mandela Bay, and exports high-grade carbon black, with 4,659 tonnes exported last year alone.

Despite the technical complexities required to implement the project, Coega can report a total value of R11m awarded so far to small, medium, micro enterprise (SMME) contracts.

Furthermore, a total of 158 job opportunities were created, notwithstanding any upcoming opportunities ahead of project completion.

“The next big milestone is planned for the end of June, when the two aluminium geodesic roof domes will be lifted into position by crane.

“However, absolutely perfect weather conditions are required for this execution,” Beukes said.