OVERVIEW
Oil, gas and petrochemicals Exploration for gas off the south-eastern coast is hotting up. SECTOR INSIGHT Sasol is selling assets to reduce debt.
The Karoo Deep Drilling and Geo-environmental Baseline Project is investigating the potential impact of shale gas drilling. (Credit: Council for Geoscience)
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here was great excitement in the oil and gas sector when Total and its joint venture partners announced in the 2019 that they had made a discovery at a site called Brulpadda, off the coast of Mossel Bay. The drilling was successful enough to warrant the return of the semisubmersible rig Deepsea Stavenger from Norway to South Africa and in August 2020 the rig was in place to drill the nearby Luiperd prospect in Block 11B/12B. The block, in the Outeniqua Basin 175km off the southern coast, covers an area of about 19 000km² in water depths of 200-1 800m. In October 2020, Total announced that it made a second significant gas condensate discovery on the Luiperd prospect. Total E&P South Africa BV is the operator (45%) with partners Qatar Petroleum International Upstream LLC (25%), CNR SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2021
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International (South Africa) Ltd (20%) and Main Street 1549 Proprietary Ltd (10%, of which Africa Energy has a 49% stake). Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA), which encourages exploration and regulates the oil and gas industry, has noted the significance of international oil companies committing to exploration off South Africa’s coast. Increased confidence by such companies can only lead to growth in the industry, and with the massive gas finds in the Rovuma Basin off Mozambique in 2020, there are sure to be more companies interested in South Africa’s potential. Another drilling project – on land this time – was launched in September 2020 in the Karoo. The Council for Geoscience (CGS) announced phase two of the Karoo Deep Drilling and Geo-environmental Baseline Project (KDD) in Beaufort West. The geoscientific research project in the Karoo Basin is aimed at developing a geoenvironmental baseline model with a focus on assessing the potential environmental impacts of shale gas development in the Karoo. A Gas Utilisation Master Plan (GUMP) is being developed as a
