S. Africa to lease out oil storage as stocks fall

South Africa is looking to lease out more oil storage capacity as large crude stockpiles, built up during the apartheid era, are run down. A long-awaited environmental impact study on storing crude at the Saldanha Bay tank farm should be complete early next year. After that, a similar study will be conducted into the feasibility of storing refined oil products at the SFF's 12 mmb Milnerton storage tanks on the outskirts of Cape Town. South Africa aims to reduce its 49 mmb stockpile to internationally accepted norms of three months' supply, or 39 mmb. Iran last year indicated that it might be interested in leasing 15 million barrels of the 45 million barrels of oil storage space at Saldanha. The deal was held up by local communities' insistence that an environmental impact study be undertaken to ensure that delicate wetlands around the harbour would not be affected by tanker traffic.