South Africa's Transnet National Ports Authority has signed a 25 year terminal operator agreement with Ukwanda LNG to develop an onshore liquefied natural gas regasification facility at the Port of Ngqura on the Eastern Cape coast. The project carries a headline value of about ZAR 22bn, roughly $1.35bn at current rates, and is the first deal of its kind for the country.
Ukwanda LNG is a consortium led by South African logistics group DP World together with local industrial partners. Under the agreement, Ukwanda will finance, build and operate the import terminal, which will include a moored floating storage and regasification unit, gas reception facilities and a connection to onshore pipeline infrastructure feeding the Coega Special Economic Zone.
TNPA chief executive Phyllis Difeto framed the project as a strategic anchor for the Port of Ngqura, which has struggled to attract container volumes in recent years. The authority is positioning the port as a regional energy hub serving both domestic power generation and industrial customers in the automotive and chemicals corridor around Gqeberha.
The investment lands as South Africa wrestles with a stubborn electricity crisis and a pipeline of coal plant retirements that the grid is not yet ready to absorb. Government planners have argued that imported LNG can bridge the gap by feeding gas turbines and replacing diesel peakers, though critics question whether locking in 25 years of fossil fuel infrastructure aligns with the country's stated net zero ambitions.
For the global LNG industry, the deal adds another committed import market in sub Saharan Africa, joining recent terminal builds in Mozambique and the proposed projects in Namibia. Construction is expected to begin once Ukwanda closes financing and secures the necessary environmental approvals, with first gas targeted before the end of the decade.