Meet the female CEO revolutionising the upstream oil & gas sector

Meet Dr Phindile Masangane, the female CEO revolutionising the upstream oil & gas sector in South Africa

The energy sector is one important sector that any country shouldn’t take for granted as it is the centre of the economy and plays a crucial role in developing countries and keeping the lights on. Almost every industry in this country depends on the energy sector. Oil and gas form part of this sector.

Petroleum Agency SA (PASA) aims to promote, facilitate and regulate exploration and sustainable development of oil and gas contributing to energy security in South Africa. The agency envisions a diverse upstream industry contributing to energy security through sustainable growth in the exploration and development of oil and gas.

At the forefront of the country's upstream oil and gas regulatory authority is Dr Phindile Masangane who’s leading the team serving as the CEO. Appointed in May 2020, the Board of Directors of Petroleum Agency SA stated that Dr Masangane brought a wealth of knowledge and experience in the energy sector. “The appointment of Dr Masangane marks a new chapter in Petroleum Agency SA’s history as the organisation embarks on a path to work towards securing stability, growth in the Oil & Gas Sector and to dominate the Energy Sector.” - The Board of Directors of Petroleum Agency SA.

Arguably one of the bestqualified women in the South African energy sector, Dr Phindile Masangane holds a PhD in Chemistry, an MBA from Wits Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree. Not only has she has participated in national energy policy development, including for biofuels, renewables and the gas programme, but she has overseen the development and commercialisation of all CEF Group renewables, alternative and new technology advancements through strategic partnerships with both the private and public sector entities.

Her track record and extensive experience in the development, deal structuring and financing of renewable energy projects speaks for itself as she has previously worked for SANEDI and EDI Holdings and KPMG, thus successfully leading the capital raising of $2-billion for the Zimbabwe power utility (ZESA/ ZPC)’s hydro and coal power plants expansion programmes while she was a partner and director at KPMG.

While South Africa is facing a major energy crisis, Dr Masangane is revolutionising the upstream oil and gas sector emphasising the importance and the crucial role that could be played by the use of gas as a transport fuel, thus building a bridge to the new clean energy for the future.

Responding to the 2022 Energy Report, in an opinion piece to Business Day and other news outlets, Dr Masangane reiterated that the country’s road to net zero emissions will be via gas. She stated that the world’s developed economies industrialised on the back of oil and gas production and use.

“As the global economy recovers from the devastating effects of Covid-19, demand for oil and gas has gone up significantly. If there was ever a need for proof that oil and gas still drive the global economy, recent statistics demonstrate the trend.

“Now, just as Africa is on the cusp of being a significant gas producer and is making plans to use such gas for power generation, industrialisation and economic growth, the negative effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment has become undeniable,” said Dr Masangane.

She added that while the International Energy Agency (IEA) proposes that to achieve this goal the world’s energy sector must reach net zero emissions by 2050, in its pathway it “acknowledges that there is no single pathway to this goal, as countries across the globe face different socioeconomic challenges and have contributed disproportionately to greenhouse gas emissions to date.”

“SA’s economy has been predominantly powered by coal, which is also a significant contributor to the country’s economy in terms of GDP as well as employment. Of all primary energy resources coal is the most carbon intensive, and SA therefore has a relatively high carbon intensive economy, contributing about 1% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. The use of coal produces fine particulate matter that affects people’s respiratory systems.

“In addition to coal, SA imports oil, gas and petroleum products for its energy needs as the upstream petroleum industry is still at a nascent stage. The two recent world class gas discoveries in the Outeniqua basin off the south coast of the country are the biggest petroleum discoveries made in SA.” - Dr Masangane.

At a recent dialogue held by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), and the PASA to address how South Africa’s climate change commitments translate to its energy policies, Dr Masangane said the government is concerned about the economic position of its people.

She stated: “We all know that the unemployment rate in our country is very high and we all know that our people continue to live in poverty and they also want their standard of living improved. On the basis of that, we all know that energy is the key enabler of that, so how can then we have a secure energy supply to fulfil these humans rights of our people

“The starting point of our government is the security of energy supply to ensure that the standard of our people is improved and within that context, the government is fully aware that we cannot degrade our environment and that’s why we have this legislation that ensures that the impact is considered and put mitigation plans in place to minimise the impact that it will have on the environment and that’s why government is still calling for sustainable development of our oil and gail industry to improve the lives of our people.”

She added that the African continent is left with these two resources as it produces a lot of oil and gas. She said a majority of these resources have been extracted, used and exported to other regions and are used to power other countries. She said the report is challenging African leaders to implement policies that will change the tide and be intentional in the use of these resources.

Dr Masangane said the PASA is looking at other jurisdictions to see how they achieve net zero in the upstream oil and gas sector with this being an aspiration for Norway and Côte d'Ivoire, having just recently issued a licence to gas and oil companies to ensure that any fugitive emissions are minimised from those operations. “That is why I strongly believe that you can achieve net zero with fossil fuels in that energy mix because technology has advanced and it is possible to capture the carbon emission and we’ve seen it in reality, in other regions.” - Dr Masangane. The national Department of Energy states that the PASA, or the South African Agency for Promotion of Petroleum Exploration and Exploitation, has been

successful in encouraging international exploration companies to evaluate the country's oil and gas opportunities.

The gas-field complex in Mossel Bay started production in the third quarter of 2000. Initial reserves indicated that it would provide sufficient feedstock to the Mossel Bay Refinery until 2009.

ABOUT PASA

The continental shelf of the Republic of South Africa covers some 200 000 km² and the country has a coastline approximately 3 000 km in length.

Petroleum Agency SA (PASA) is responsible for the archive and management of the national hydrocarbon exploration database on behalf of the State. It has digitised, indexed and archived all of the data and reports resulting from the drilling of more than 300 offshore and some 200 onshore boreholes.

The exploration database also include seismic field and processed data for more than 300 000 km's of 2D and 40 000 km² of 3D seismic data that was acquired offshore and some 9 800 km of seismic processed data that was acquired during the late 1960's in the Karoo, Algoa and Zululand onshore basins.

Being the custodian of the National Petroleum Exploration and Production Database of South Africa, the Agency relies on a sustainable and effective Information Management Infrastructure in order to comply with its mandate to:

- Archive and maintain a database on petroleum exploration & production data. - Provide access to existing data, cores, well samples, information and literature on request. - Add value and incorporate new as well as interpreted data into the database. - Maintain records of all hydrocarbon exploration and production activities.

PASA’s Promotion Division

The Promotion Division is responsible for attracting oil and gas exploration investment to South Africa and for quantifying South Africa's oil and gas resources. We comprise a small group of earth scientists, drafting and support staff, who work with exploration data to identify and advertise new opportunities for investment and to reduce risk for prospective operators. We advertise these opportunities through displays at international oil and gas conventions and exhibitions, country and company visits, advertisements and our data room at our offices in Cape Town. There are two departments in the division, viz. the Conventional Resource Management Department and the Unconventional Resource Management Department.

The Unconventional Resource Department is responsible for evaluating and attempting to quantify the potential of the offshore beyond the reach of current exploration technology, as well as that of the onshore Karoo Basin where very little exploration has taken place to date and existing data is very old, so that the basin's potential is still poorly understood. The Unconventional Resource team is concerned with conventional as well as future sources of hydrocarbon resources such as gas hydrates offshore and coalbed methane and shale gas onshore.

The Conventional Resource Department is responsible for evaluating and quantifying the potential of the offshore areas around South Africa that can be exploited through current exploration and production technology. This department is tasked with the identification of exploration opportunities in this area and for facilitating the entry of new explorers into the South African upstream industry. A major responsibility is the upkeep of a quantified and risked inventory of exploration opportunities.

"While South Africa is facing a major energy crisis,Dr Masangane is revolutionising the upstream oil and gas sector"