OVERVIEW
Oil, gas and petrochemicals Offshore gas discoveries could boost South Africa’s economy. SECTOR INSIGHT A helium project in the Free State is set to join an elite club.
The Virginia Gas Project is ramping up. Credit: Renergen
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outh Africa has set a target of 3 000MW of gas power in the national grid by 2030. This is laid out in the country’s most recent Integrated Resources Plan (IRP), which guides national targets in each of the various methods of power generation and which is tilted towards renewable energy. Although there have been encouraging finds off the southern coast of South Africa and prospects for shale gas appear to be good in the country’s interior, it has been pointed out by the commercial growth director of GE Gas Power for Sub-Saharan Africa, Michael Konadu, that these prospects are yet to be commercialised. When this fact is added to the logistical difficulties and security concerns surrounding the gas resource available from Mozambique, Konadu argues that liquified natural gas (LNG) should be the vehicle for meeting the objectives of the IRP and the national Gas Master Plan. His preferred method would be for a consortium to assume project risk, including terminal and plant infrastructure. The state could take a stake through Transnet or the Central Energy Fund. Whether it is via new imports of LNG or the development of the Brulpadda and Luiperd prospects off the southern coast, there is no doubt that new feedstock is needed for the PetroSA GTL refinery at Mossel Bay. Commissioned in 1992 as the world’s first gas-to-liquids (GTL) refinery, it plays an important role in the regional and national economy but it has effectively run out of feedstock.
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The entity is considering extracting geothermal energy from nine of its wells that are now depleted of gas as a way of fending off decommissioning. Total E&P South Africa BV, the operator and majority stakeholder in the joint venture which is drilling, has not yet taken a decision about what further steps it might take now that the first drilling operations have been shown to be successful. The drilling was successful enough to warrant the return of the semi-submersible rig Deepsea Stavanger from Norway to South Africa and in August 2020 the rig made more discoveries at the nearby Luiperd prospect. The JV partners are Qatar Petroleum International Upstream LLC, CNR International and Main Street 1549 Proprietary Ltd. 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. Another drilling project was launched in September 2020 in t he K aroo. The Council for Geoscience (CGS) announced phase two of the Karoo Deep Drilling and Geoenvironmental Baseline Project
