S.Africa's gas master plan ready, official says

Kinetiko Energy

10/10/2023 11:24

CAPE TOWN, Oct 10 (Reuters) - South Africa's master plan
to develop its gas market is finally ready after repeated delays
as it aims to reduce its carbon emissions and avoid chronic
power outages that have plagued Africa's most developed economy
for years.
    The master plan will go to the cabinet before public
release, a senior official at the department of mineral
resources and energy (DMRE) said on Tuesday.
    "It is done, it is going through the internal processes to
go to cabinet for public comment", Jacob Mbele, the chief
director at the DMRE told journalists.
    South Africa wants to diversify its energy mix away from
ageing coal-fired power plants prone to breakdowns and help
reduce harmful emissions from the continent's top polluter. The
country estimates it has gas resources of around 60 trillion
cubic feet (tcf) offshore and a further 200 tcf onshore. 
    The failure to come up with a master plan, first raised
almost a decade ago, has added to regulatory uncertainty in
South Africa, where French energy company TotalEnergies
 TTEF.PA  was looking to develop two large offshore gas finds.
    Another DMRE official said last month the new gas master
plan was designed to balance the demand and supply of natural
gas until 2050, modelled on data gleaned and verified by the
industry.
    The gas master plan uses three scenarios - low, medium and
high - and showed that gas-to-power projects will initially
dominate gas uptake in South Africa as the country looks to
re-purpose decommissioned coal-fired plants to run on gas.
    The plan also considers that South Africa, which gets the
bulk of its gas from petrochemical major Sasol's  SOLJ.J  fields
in Mozambique, will face an imminent gas shortage from 2026 as
these fields start running dry.
    The gas master plan is expected to be made public before the
end of December.

 (Reporting by Wendell Roelf
Editing by Promit Mukherjee and Louise Heavens)
 ((wendell.roelf@thomsonreuters.com; +27 21 461 3523;))