Tanzania International Petroleum Reserves Increases Oil Storage Capacity By 50% With USD 11 Million Investment

The Tanzania International Petroleum Reserves Limited (TIPER), a 50/50 joint venture between Swiss Oryx Energies and the Tanzanian Government, has recently announced in a media statement the completion of two refurbished oil storage tanks which expand its current fuel storage capacity from 141,000 cubic metres to 213,000 cubic metres.

tiper-oil-storage-capacity-tanzaniaThe two tanks refurbished with a capacity of 36,000 cubic metres each, needed a total investment of USD 11 million (approximately TZS 22 billion) approved by TIPER Board of Directors in March 2015.

The refurbishment is meant to extend the life time and modifying the tanks to newest standards seeking the maximization of the firm’s storage capacity he added.

These upgrades were necessary to increase the efficiency of receiving Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) from the Single Point Mooring (SPM), where all large incoming vessels have to offload the imported fuel to be delivered to all oil marketing companies operating in Tanzania.

The refurbishment is helping then to increase the current flow rate from 1,500 cubic metres per hour to 2,000 cubic metres per hour, the fastest flow rate in the Oil & Gas Industry said Mr. Belair.

Final operations as painting and calibrations for weight and measure are being developed to get them ready by the end of August 2015, explained TIPER Managing Director Daniel Belair in the statement.

TIPER has further plans to keep increasing storage capacity to a total of 313,000 cubic metres in the near future and the Board of Directors has already endorsed a budget of USD 15 million for this purpose and a new set of pipelines to meet increasing demand from customers in Kurasini, at the south of Dar es Salaam.

TIPER manages one of the largest bulk import and storage sites in the Sub-Saharan Region behind South Africa and Kenya.

However, with thirteen separate installations totaling a 500,000 cubic metres capacity which is equivalent to 137 days of consumption according to the World Bank, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania is considered as the greatest diversity site of oil terminals in the region.