Turkish energy firm Karpowership has secured an environmental permit from the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to site and operate floating liquefied natural gas ships in the port of Richards Bay in the country’s Kwazulu Natal province.
The greenlight enables the energy firm to move closer to its final investment decision of the 450MW gas-to-power floating power station in Richards Bay.
The approval follows Karpowership filing for a certificate with the department having been granted a 20-year tender to deploy gas-to-power projects with a total 1,220MW capacity in Coega, Richards Bay and Saldanha as part of the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Program in March 2021.
In the filing, the energy firm demonstrated its ability to offset the environmental impact of its operations in the project through investments in “both estuarine and land-based biodiversity projects”.
In one of the investments, Karpowership bought a game range and donated it to game reserve Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
Karpowership awaits a decision from the department on its environmental filing for the Saldanha project and is finalizing the docking location for its ship in the Coega project with the Transnet National Ports Authority.