Participants unfold the South African gas discovery with AEC

A breakfast event entitled ‘The role of indigenous Oil and Gas resources in Developing South Africa’s economy’ was hosted by The African Energy Chamber (AEC) for oil and gas industry leaders.

The AEC mentioned that the participants came from the public sector, international oil companies and local and internationally operating services.The subject matter on the chamber conversation was how to best utilize oil major Total’s recent offshore gas discovery advantageously for local businesses in South Africa as well as the economy as a whole.

The speakers for this event were Niall Kramer, CEO of the South African Gas Alliance (SAOGA), Dave Van de Spu, resource evaluation manager of the Petroleum Agency South Africa, the department of trade and industry’s up and midstream oil and gas director of Kishan Pillay and AEC’s senior vice-president Verner Ayukegba.

Educating on the regulatory framework and oil investment speculation issues, Centurion Law Group CEO and AEC Executive Chairman NJ Ayuk pointed out that Africa’s natural resource story doesn't always have to be the same.

South Africa has a huge window of opportunity to get it perfectly and make oil and gas perform for everyone. Gas monetisation is vital to development and job generation. Policy makers have a major role here as many fruitful deals will be accomplished for local companies. In order to harness the opportunity quickly, field development plans should not be delayed and a immediate offering of more oil blocks to explorers like ExxonMobil, Eni and others to drill would be extremely good for the industry and the country.

As stated by Chairman NJ Ayuk, “These changes to the oil industry and opportunities in South Africa will take centre stage at the October 2019 Africa Oil and Power event in Cape Town.”

A new legislation is being worked on by the South African government to separate the legislature on oil and gas from traditional minerals which is likely to be sanctioned this year.South Africa has enabled a brand new Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2018) to install an additional 8,100 MW of gas-to-power capacity in South Africa by 2030.