Page 11 - AfrOil Week 43

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

Opposition party faults Transnet

for pipeline spill in KwaZulu-Natal

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Democratic Alliance (DA) avoid secondary contamination, she said.
Party has demanded that Transnet Pipelines As of press time, the size and extent of the
(TPL) be held responsible for a pipeline breach spill was not known. TPL has already started
that caused several thousand litres of crude oil to repairing the pipeline breach, which it has
spill into the Umbilo River. attributed to attempted theft. The company has
Hannah Shameema Winkler, the opposition also said that the incident occurred on October
party’s shadow deputy minister for environmen- 19, but Desmond D’Sa, a spokesperson for the
tal affairs, forestry and fisheries, said that the DA South Durban Community Environmental
would work to ensure that the proper action was Alliance (SDCEA), was quoted by GroundUp as
taken against the pipeline operator. Specifically, saying that residents of the area began noticing
she said, the party will seek to uphold the inter- the smell of oil several days before TPL began
ests of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial adminis- clean-up procedures. ™
tration and the municipality of eThekwini.
She also called on TPL to mount a probe of
the incident. “An immediate investigation must
be undertaken into the allegations of Transnet’s
ailing pipeline infrastructure as the cause of the
oil spill,” she commented. “An environmental
assessment of the damage must be commis-
sioned and a plan for the river’s rehabilitation
drafted in consultation with environmental
experts to save the Umbilo River.”
For its part, the KwaZulu-Natal provin-
cial administration has already ordered TPL
to review the matter. Nomusa Dube-Ncube,
a member of the executive council (MEC) for
economic development, tourism and environ-
mental affairs, reported last week that the com-
pany had been given 14 days to submit a report
on the spill.
Dube-Ncube also reported that TPL had
been instructed to remove oil-contaminated
materials, such as litter, as well as the spilled
crude itself. This step is necessary in order to Clean-up operations began on October 19 (Photo: Transnet)

INVESTMENT
Dana Gas selling onshore Egyptian

producing assets to IPR Energy

EGYPT DANA Gas, the largest private sector natural Egypt, with 9 active concessions, and over three
gas player in the Middle East, has entered into a decades of expertise in enhancing the recovery
binding agreement with IPR Wastani Petroleum of mature producing oil and gas fields.
for the sale of its onshore Egyptian producing The asset sale is in line with Dana Gas’ strate-
oil and gas assets for up to $236mn, including gic goals of strengthening its balance sheet and
contingent payments. focusing on the development of its world-class
IPR Wastani Petroleum is a member of assets in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The com-
Egypt-focused IPR Energy Group, a leading pany will use the sale proceeds to reduce debt
private exploration and production operator in and for general corporate purposes.

Week 43 28•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11