Fuel storage facility now in Namcor’s hands

Fuel storage facility now in Namcor’s hands OGONE TLHAGE



WINDHOEK

The National Petroleum Commission of Namibia (Namcor) has officially taken over the operations of a N$5 billion-dollar national oil storage facility, its board chairperson Jenny Comalie announced.

With the completion and operationalisation of the facility, Namibia’s fuel supply security has gone from seven to 10 days to 30 to 45 days in situations when the country is unable to import petroleum products from the international market.

“This is a proud initiative of the Namibian government through the ministry of mines in the interest of national fuel security, now and for the future,” Comalie said.

Namcor will use the fuel storage facility to optimise the trading of petroleum products, she said.

“The facility will, therefore, not only be used for Namcor’s own trading purposes, but also to host other international oil and marketing companies to ensure that it is used optimally and that Namibia becomes a strategic gateway through which neighbouring African countries are supplied,” Comalie added.

Safe to use

Namcor CEO Imms Mulunga was thankful government had entrusted the company with the responsibility of managing the facility.

“We believe government entrusted us not only because we are Namibians, but also because we have demonstrated competence and local expertise to effectively manage and operate this facility,” he said.

Prior to the handover, Mulunga explained that a commissioning strategy had to be conducted before Namcor commenced its operations at the fuel storage facility.

“The commissioning stock consisted of approximately 37 million litres of diesel, 21 million litres of unleaded petrol and nine million litres of low sulphur fuel oil. As part of the commissioning process, which is an industry standard, all pipelines first needed to be flushed to ensure that any water, rust and possible sediment and debris would be flushed out,” he said.

The product used to flush the pipelines was then filtered and recovered for future use, the CEO explained.

“I would thus like to make it categorically clear that the product for sale is safe and clean to use. In fact, we have already sold over 60% of the product and expect to clear the remainder of the commissioning stock in the next couple of weeks,” Mulunga said.