Cape Town - South Africa's first shipyard to construct oil and gas production platforms was opened on Tuesday, providing a foothold for the country to take advantage of a booming oil sector in Angola and other West African countries.

South Africa is hoping the R200m plant, part of a R1.7bn investment by Germany-based MAN Ferrostaal AG, will act as a service hub for Africa's burgeoning oil industry.

"This fabrication centre will hopefully fulfil the demand for offshore exploration and production infrastructure," Brian Blackbeard, managing director for FerroMarine Africa, the local developer of the facility, told Reuters.

"The international market is over-subscribed and this facility, which is geographically ideally located in South Africa will be able to satisfy equipment requirements for the west African oil and gas fields," Blackbeard said.

The facility in Saldanha, about 100km north of Cape Town, will manufacture components, such as bridges, decks and hulls for offshore oil platforms, largely to service fields in Angola and Nigeria to the north.Saldanha is South Africa's largest and deepest natural port, and will have the capacity to build complete oil platforms weighing up to 5000 tonnes, Blackbeard said.

Matthias Mitscherlich, chairperson of the executive board of MAN Ferrostaal AG, said volatility in the Middle East was raising concerns about the security of oil supplies, fuelling the development of new offshore fields and placing a huge demand on fabrication yards around the world. "This sustained demand, supported by the high selling price of oil will further fund the expansion of the offshore exploration and production fleet, in turn demanding more equipment and infrastructure, for which this facility has been designed to produce.

"He added the project, first mooted in 2004, was modelled against an oil price of $22 a barrel. International crude prices are currently above $90 a barrel. Blackbeard added plans were at an advanced stage to construct a service and repair hub, estimated to cost R100m, at Cape Town harbour.This hub will support the offshore oil and gas fleet, allowing rigs to be towed to Cape Town for inspections, maintenance and refurbishment.

"After signing the lease for the facility, the construction will commence, hopefully next month, and be completed within 10 months," Blackbeard said.

With acknowledgements to Reuters and Fin24.