Andre Klynsmith

Ports and Terminals

South Africa Puts an LNG Terminal Out to Tender While the World's LNG Chokepoint Stays Shut

Transnet National Ports Authority has issued a Request for Proposals for an operator to design, finance, build, run and eventually hand back a small-to-medium-scale LNG import terminal at the Port of East London, under a 25-year concession.

Ports and Terminals

17 September 2026 • 4 min read

South Africa is adding gas import capacity at exactly the moment the waterway that normally carries a fifth of the world’s LNG is effectively closed to commercial traffic. For freight operators, the interesting question is not whether the terminal gets built — it is which supply basin fills it, and what arrives on the landside.

What is on offer

The RFP, announced from East London on 16 September, covers the appointment of a terminal operator to design, finance, develop, construct, operate, maintain and transfer the facility — the full build-and-hand-back model. The asset reverts to TNPA at the end of the 25-year concession. The site is greenfield, roughly 8 900 square metres in the port’s West Bank precinct, and the successful bidder carries the terminal infrastructure needed to handle small-to-medium-scale LNG imports along with the associated operational and safety systems.

TNPA says its earlier Expression of Interest process drew a strong response from potential operators. The terminal is intended to serve niche LNG consumers and industrial users in the Eastern Cape, diversifying a port whose cargo base has long been narrow. East London Port Manager Dr Sphiwe Mthembu described it as “a significant milestone in unlocking new investment opportunities within the port”, positioning the harbour “to respond to evolving market needs while contributing to regional competitiveness”.

A pattern, not a one-off

East London is the third point on a developing South African gas import map. TNPA signed a 25-year terminal operator agreement for an onshore LNG regasification facility at the Port of Ngqura in May 2026, with a joint venture between Tamasa Energy Group and the Strategic Fuel Fund. At Richards Bay, a Vopak and Transnet Pipelines venture has an Eskom heads of agreement as a foundation customer and a separate supply heads of agreement involving ExxonMobil. Read together, these are not three isolated tenders — they are a deliberate attempt to build import optionality into the coastline.

That timing is not accidental. Every one of these projects has advanced during a period in which Middle Eastern energy exports have become the least predictable part of the global supply chain, and in which shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — historically a route for around a fifth of the world’s LNG as well as its oil — has fallen to a handful of transits a day.

The landside consequence is the part operators can act on

A large baseload import terminal feeds a pipeline. A small-to-medium-scale terminal serving “niche LNG consumers and industrial users” spread across a province is something different: it is a road distribution business. Gas reaches those customers in cryogenic road tankers and ISO tank containers, on scheduled runs, with specialised equipment, driver training and safety documentation attached.

That is a cargo type the Eastern Cape haulage market does not currently carry at volume, and a 25-year concession implies a decade-plus of it. It also changes the backhaul arithmetic on the N2 and N6 corridors, where East London’s traditional automotive and container flows have left limited return-load options. New inbound tonnage at a port that has not had much of it is a corridor-economics story before it is an energy story.

About the Author
	Andre Klynsmith Entrepreneur & Technology Enthusiast Andre's expertise spans technology, blockchain, transport, and logistics — with a passion for innovation and driving positive change across industries. info@laaimylorrie.com | laaimylorrie.com