South Africa is likely to build its first liquefied natural gas import facility at the west coast port of Saldanha Bay. The R20-billion facility would feed gas to projects aimed at easing the country's severe electricity supply shortages.Several companies, including Shell, Mitsubishi and Sasol, are expected to bid for 3126MW gas-to-power projects in the first quarter of next year."Saldanha Bay ticks all the boxes," Fernel Abrahams, manager of liquefied natural gas projects for the Western Cape government said."It makes economic sense. It will improve energy security and all our studies around ocean conditions, demurrage and market growth show it is technically feasible to land gas at Saldanha Bay."He said the intention was to build an import facility at, or close to Saldanha Bay, with pipelines supplying sufficient gas to power-generating plants for them to supply thousands of industries and homes stretching to Cape Town, about 150km away.Richards Bay, in KwaZulu-Natal, and Coega, in Eastern Cape, have also been suggested as sites for a liquefied natural gas import terminal...