INTERVIEW: PETROLEUM AGENCY SA
PASA a strategic entity of government in its goal of diversifying the energy mix South African Business Integrator spoke to the Petroleum Agency SA about its mandate as a custodian of South Africa's oil and gas rights, as well as its new five-year strategy. What is the mandate of PASA in terms of being a 'custodian' of the country’s oil and gas rights? PASA’s mandate is threefold – firstly, to attract investment to South Africa’s upstream industry; secondly, to regulate the activities of oil and gas explorers and producers, and thirdly, to act as the national archive and database for all data and information produced in the process of oil and gas exploration and production. The upstream oil and gas exploration industry requires technological capacity and is extremely high risk in terms of capital investment and needs long-term investment of resources before a return is shown. Because of this, many countries choose to share the risk of oil and gas exploration and production with private companies, and South Africa follows this model.
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