The Port of East London is hoping to help solve South Africa’s impending natural gas shortage.
South Africa’s Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) has invited tenders for a private operator to develop and run a small-to-medium-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the port under a 25-year concession. Tenders close on 22 September 2026.
The new LNG import terminal is expected to meet local LNG demand, reports Moneyweb.
South Africa is expected to face a LNG shortage or ‘gas cliff’ in 2028 as imports from Mozambique’s Pande-Temane gas fields decline.
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The new terminal will be built on a 8 900 m2 greenfield site within the port’s West Bank precinct. It is part of an uptick in investment in the port, which sits at the mouth of the Buffalo River.
The planned terminal follows a US$3.6 million project to deepen and strengthen the port’s automotive terminal, according to the Maritime Executive, increasing the port’s capacity to handle 790 000 units a year.
Plans are also in motion to treble the port’s overall container-handling capacity from 30 000 TEU to more than 100 000 TEU.
The successful LNG terminal operator will design, finance, develop, construct, operate and maintain the terminal. It will be transferred back to TNPA at the end of the 25-year concession.
Last year TNPA signed a 25-year agreement with Zululand Energy Terminals in February 2025 to develop what is planned as South Africa’s first large-scale LNG import terminal at Richard’s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal.
