Transnet Pipelines, a subsidiary of
Transnet
Transnet SOC Ltd is a large South African rail, port and pipeline company, headquartered in the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. It was formed as a limited company on 1 April 1990. A majority of the company's stock is owned by the Department ...
, is the principal operator of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
's fuel
pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
system. It is responsible for over of pipelines. It is responsible for petroleum
storage and pipeline
maintenance
Maintenance may refer to:
Biological science
* Maintenance of an organism
* Maintenance respiration
Non-technical maintenance
* Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English
* Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doctrine ...
. Transnet Pipelines works with
petrol
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
s,
diesel fuel
Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...
,
jet fuel
Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...
,
crude oil
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...
and
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
(
methane rich gas). Total throughput is over per year.
History
The introduction of pipelines to convey petroleum in South Africa occurred in 1963 with a Bill enacted in parliament granting the right to manage them to the
South African Railways and Harbours Administration The South African Railways and Harbours Administration (SAR&H) was established on 31 May 1910 with formation of the Union of South Africa by the amalgamation of the four colonial railways and all harbours in South Africa - about 11,000 kilometres of ...
(SAR&H).
The Bill called for pipelines to be built 1.5 metres underground where possible.
[
South Africa in the 1960s was undergoing an economic boom which resulted in a requirement to increase petroleum products by twelve percent to meet demand.][ Prior to this point, rail transport via ]Maputo
Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the Capital city, capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a popul ...
(Lourenço Marques) and Durban was the main means of transport and was reaching a point full capacity.[ Industry and SAR&H saw pipelines as a means of relieving the pressure on the railways.][
The first pipeline built was 12 inches wide at 430 cubic metres per hour, costing R20 million and was routed from Durban to ]Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
via Pietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...
, Ladysmith Ladysmith may refer to:
* Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
* Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada
* Ladysmith, Wisconsin, United States
* Ladysmith, New South Wales, Australia
* Ladysmith, Virginia, United States
* Ladysmith Island, Queenslan ...
, Bethlehem
Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...
, Kroonstad
Kroonstad (Afrikaans directly translated "Crown City") is the third largest city in the Free State (after Bloemfontein and Welkom) and lies two hours' drive on the N1 from Gauteng. Maokeng is an area within Kroonstad, and is occasionally used ...
, Sasolburg
Sasolburg is a large industrial city within the Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the far north of the Free State province of South Africa. Sasolburg is further sub-divided into three areas: Sasolburg proper, Vaalpark (a more affluent cluster o ...
and Alberton with ability to draw product from each of those points.[ It was commissioned in October 1965 and the first consignment delivered on 25 November 1965.][ The first pipeline would later be extended to deliver petroleum products to ]Klerksdorp
Klerksdorp () is located in the North West Province, South Africa. Klerksdorp, the largest city in the North West Province, is located southeast of Mahikeng, the provincial capital. Klerksdorp was also the first capital of the then Transvaal Repub ...
, Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier (Afrikaans for "pretty river" ...
and Langlaagte in mining towns near to Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
.[ Though the first pipeline was not entirely successful, the SAR&H decided to build a larger pipeline and also meet the strategy of the government, to stockpile oil in mines as means to protect against a proposed oil boycott by the international community opposed to the country's ]Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
policies.[
This pipeline came into commission on 9 June 1969, with an eighteen-inch diameter, costing R50 million (1970) and routed from Durban over the ]Drakensberg
The Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Drakensberge, Zulu: uKhahlambha, Sotho: Maluti) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – within th ...
to Sasolburg and its new Natref refinery with pipelines to Kendal and Ogies for storage of crude oil in old coal mines.[ There was also an extension to ]Empangeni
Empangeni is a city in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is approximately 157 kilometres north of Durban, in hilly countryside, overlooking a flat coastal plain and the major harbour town of Richards Bay 16 kilometres away. The N2 freeway runs east ...
and a spur to the future Port of Richards Bay
The Port of Richards Bay is located in Richards Bay harbour on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa, and contains the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) which is the largest coal export facility in Africa.
Although originally built to handle coa ...
as the latter was proposed to receive oil tankers sometime in the future.[
After many years of modifications, these three developed into a refined fuels, crude oil and gas pipelines with an additional one transporting aviation fuel from Natref to ]OR Tambo International Airport
O. R. Tambo International Airport is an international airport situated in Kempton Park, Gauteng, Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa. It serves as the primary airport for domestic and international travel to/from South Africa and since 2020, ...
from 1972. In 1979, the Sasol II project was also linked to the Witwatersrand.[
]
Operations
Transnet Pipelines uses a telecontrol
A telecommand or telecontrol is a command sent to control a remote system or systems not directly connected (e.g. via wires) to the place from which the telecommand is sent. The word is derived from ''tele'' = remote (Greek), and ''command'' = to ...
system to monitor its pipeline. The telecontrol system is by Siemens Systems and "allows for automatic leak detection and batch tracking". The system operates with a 4-second delay between an event in the pipeline and on-screen display in Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
.
The company's projects include a new multiproduct pipeline corridor between Gauteng
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
and Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
. It is working on a partnership with Pande Gas in Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
.
See also
* 2021 Transnet Cyberattack
On 22 July 2021, Transnet became a victim of a ransomware attack. The attack caused Transnet to declare force majeure at several key container terminals, including Port of Durban, Ngqura, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The attack was the fir ...
External links
Company website
References
{{National Key Points navbox
Transnet
Oil and gas companies of South Africa
Natural gas pipeline companies
Oil pipeline companies
Companies based in Durban