DAR ES SALAAM: THE Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) will construct two tank farms for oil storage at the Dar es Salaam Port in order to hasten oil tanker offloading.
The two tank farms have the capacity to store a total of 362,500 tonnes of oil at once.
Dar es Salaam Port Oil Terminal Manager, Engineer Yona Malago made the remarks to journalists on Monday when the visited the facility.
Eng Malago said they have already secured a contractor for the construction of the two tank farms after the government allocated funds for execution of the project in 2023/2024 financial year.
"So far the government has no tank farms, we have been relying on private ones, in this regard construction of the tanks will mitigate oil tanker offloading delays," he said.
Eng Malago said the two tank farms will cut oil offloading time at the Dar es Salaam Port from an average of four to eight days to two days (48 hours) saying such reduction, has decreased waiting charges and price burden to oil traders and end consumers.
The two tank farms will cut waiting charges by 70 per cent while boosting government revenue due increased circulation of oil tankers accelerated by swift unloading" Eng Malago said.
Dar es Salaam Port Mechanical Technician, Mr Abasi Msukulu said the government has invested heavily by placing a Single Point Mooring (SPM) located at Kisinda Mjimwema area in the Indian Ocean to enable large oil tankers with capacity of 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes to offload diesel apart from the Kurasini Oil Jetty (KOJ) which handles refined products for small oil tankers.
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SPM is a floating jetty that is anchored offshore to allow liquid cargo handling such as petroleum products including diesel for tanker ships, the handling can be on crude or refined oil.
Additionally, Mr Msukulu said major improvements on security have been undertaken to strengthen safety at the port addressing claims raised by citizens pertaining to theft of some of their cars' equipment, parked at the port.
Assistant Operation Officer of the Dar es Salaam Port, Mr Aman Kimario said currently more than 1000 cars are offloaded in eight hours due to addition of berth zero for vehicles.
He said the berth zero has an area that allows parking to over 3000 cars.
Equally, Mr Kimaro said TPA has successfully prevented theft cases at the port by adding more Closed-Circuit
Television (CCTV) cameras among other surveillance systems.
