Mark Haselau, Turner & Townsend director: Energy.
With hands-on experience in multi-product pipeline projects in South Africa, the United States and Europe, global construction and management consultants Turner & Townsend has been appointed by Black Rhino MOGS (BRM) to provide project management and project controls services for the Horn of Africa fuel pipeline.
The 550km pipeline is a critical infrastructure project being undertaken by the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti.
To be developed at a total cost of approximately $1.55 billion by Black Rhino Group and South African-based MOGS, which together form Black Rhino MOGS (BRM), the Horn of Africa pipeline will transport diesel, petrol and jet fuel from the port of Djibouti to Awash in central Ethiopia. This will help cater for both countries’ rapidly increasing demand for refined products, alleviating the huge pressure on Djibouti and Ethiopia’s current fuel transportation system via road.
“The project is now in the set-up phase, with the design and procurement processes taking place over the coming months. The project will address both the planned growth in demand and the short and long term fuel delivery problems in Ethiopia,” says Mark Haselau, Turner & Townsend director: Energy.
As part of the owner’s team, Turner & Townsend is providing full project controls services – including estimating; cost, schedule, risk and change management; performance measurement and reporting and document control, in addition to contracts administration and procurement management.
“We have been guiding and supporting BRM on this project since inception and assisted with the project set-up, consultants’ appointments, and EPC consultant (engineering, procurement, and construction) procurement and planning. As this is a cost-driven project, the developers require an end-to-end solution delivered on time and within budget”.
“The challenge in this groundbreaking project lies in overcoming the logistical, infrastructural and regulatory issues presented on the African continent – for example, the physical importation and transportation of materials to the various sites and laydown areas,” says Haselau.
Set to help boost economic growth, the Horn of Africa pipeline, ship-offloading facilities and storage will have a transporting capability of more than 240 000 barrels of fuel per day. The pipeline will include a 20 inch steel overland pipeline from Damerjog through to Awash in Ethiopia, complete with pump and monitoring stations, as well as a buffer storage tank farm at Damerjog. This is linked to a terminal bulk storage tank farm and truck loading facility at Awash as well as offloading infrastructure in Djibouti.
As a result of their services provided to date on the project, Turner & Townsend has also been engaged by Black Rhino to assist with due diligence and set-up on other projects in Africa, including Nigeria.
