Case: SNDP (Societé Nationale de Distribution de Pétrole), Tunisia

Securing the LPG supply in Tunis

Customer

Our solution

The outcome

Scope of supply

Faced with a high LPG demand in the capital city of Tunis, SNDP turned to Kosan Crisplant (today known as MAKEEN Energy) for the construction of a brand new filling plant. SNDP, the national company for oil distribution in Tunisia, is the largest LPG company in Tunisia. KC France and SNDP have had a very good and exclusive working relationship for years and one of the latest projects was the filling plant in Rades near Tunis. The project was done with French engineering company Entrepose Contracting as the main contractor and Kosan Crisplant as subcontractor.

LPG in high demand

An important incentive for initiating the project was that LPG was in high demand in Tunis. As the capital of Tunisia and the largest city in the country, Tunis is also the centre for consumption, and the city therefore needs a large number of LPG cylinders on a daily basis. A nearby plant would make distribution easy, with the added benefit that the new plant could provide the area with a number of much needed jobs.

The filling plant

Kosan Crisplant’s part of the project included two filling lines for 13 and 6 kg cylinders. The 13 kg cylinders have screw valves, whereas the 6 kg cylinders are equipped with compact valves. However, the two filling lines are flexible and able to handle both types of cylinders in one and the same operation.

The cylinders come in batches, and the filling lines have a capacity of 2400 cylinders per hour with an average accuracy of ±10 g. All equipment is electronic and the plant has pallet plants connected as well as a small maintenance line for various repair work and testing procedures. There is also a small in-line filling system for the few 25 kilo cylinders in the area.

Mounded storage tanks

Furthermore, the plant is equipped with four mounded spherical LPG storage tanks of 2000 tons each, each surrounded by a concrete 'skirt'. The solution with spherical tanks, which do not take up as much space as cylindrical tanks, proved to be the best for this project in view of the limited space, as it is required by law that there must always be one month’s supply of LPG in stock as back-up.

The French connection

 For a project like this, Kosan Crisplant truly benefits from having a French subsidiary with competent staff that knows every nook and cranny of the French standards and French regulations, which Tunisia, being old French territory, has adopted as its own. France and Tunisia handle their plants in the exact same way and the KC France's vast experience from both territories enables them to handle a project like this to perfection.

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