Construction and management consultants Turner & Townsend have been appointed by Black Rhino Mining Oil and Gas Services (BRM) to provide project management and project control services for the 550 km Horn of Africa fuel pipeline.

The $1.55-billion pipeline project was a critical infrastructure project being undertaken by the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti and would transport diesel, petrol and jet fuel.

The Horn of Africa pipeline, ship offloading facilities and storage would have a transporting capability of more than 240 000 bbl/d of fuel and would include a 20-inch steel overland pipeline from Damerjog, in Djibouti, through to Awash in Ethiopia, complete with pump and monitoring stations, as well as a buffer storage tank farm at Damerjog.

This was linked to a terminal bulk storage tank farm and truck loading facility at Awash, as well as offloading infrastructure in Djibouti.

The project would help cater for both countries’ rapidly increasing demand for refined products, alleviating the huge pressure on Djibouti and Ethiopia’s current fuel transportation system by road.

“The project is now in the set-up phase, with the design and procurement processes taking place over the coming months, and [it] will address both the planned growth in demand and the short- and long-term fuel delivery problems in Ethiopia,” Turner & Townsend energy director Mark Haselau said.

Turner & Townsend would provide full project control 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 engineering, procurement and construction consultant 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,” said Haselau.