Nersa grant Transnet a 31.6% pipeline increase

According to Reuters Africa, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) had granted logistics group Transnet a 31.6 percent increase - which will kick-in from April - for the next financial year in the revenue Transnet derives from moving fuel through the more than 20 fuel pipelines it operates. The group had applied for an 83.3 percent increase.

Rod Crompton, a Nersa member responsible for petroleum pipelines, said that some 2012/13 rates were reduced, while others were hiked by as much as 30 percent. A Transnet spokesman said that the company still needed to examine the decision before it can comment on the impact the difference may have on its financial commitments and capital projects. Transnet plans to use the increase to pay for a new pipeline launched in January which - at 23.4 billion rand - is Transnet's biggest capital project to date, Reuters Africa says.

Business Day reports that the regulator's pipeline tariff hike may add 4c/l to petrol price, representing a 0,37% rise in the retail price of fuel. This will be worked into the monthly adjustments made by the Department of Energy. Nersa's decision comes a week after South Africa's state-owned power utility Eskom settled for a lower tariff, as well. The South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia), whose members are Transnet's customers, has applauded Nersa for granting the parastatal a lower increase. Sapia executive director Avhapfani Tshifularo told Business Day that Nersa had struck "a satisfactory balance" between Transnet's needs and the needs of petroleum pipelines users.

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