South African Business 2017 edition
South African Business is a unique guide to business and investment in South Africa. In addition to an up-to-date economic overview of the country, analyses of the main industrial sectors, plus profiles of the nine provincial economies, the 2017 edition of South African Business includes special features on key topical issues such as skills development and education, renewable energy and the REIPPPP programme, and trade with Africa.
South African Business is a unique guide to business and investment in South Africa. In addition to an up-to-date economic overview of the country, analyses of the main industrial sectors, plus profiles of the nine provincial economies, the 2017 edition of South African Business includes special features on key topical issues such as skills development and education, renewable energy and the REIPPPP programme, and trade with Africa.
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OVERVIEW<br />
Oil and gas<br />
<strong>South</strong> Africa is turning to gas.<br />
SECTOR INSIGHT<br />
The Gas Industrialisation unit<br />
will position <strong>South</strong> Africa as a<br />
hub for the oil and gas sector<br />
in <strong>South</strong>ern Africa.<br />
New sources of energy are always welcome. <strong>South</strong> Africa still<br />
burns a lot of coal to create power, but gas is increasingly<br />
being seen as a viable alternative.<br />
In 2016, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) established<br />
a Gas Industrialisation Unit (GIU), which is tasked with creating<br />
a strategy to exploit the huge fields of natural gas off the coasts<br />
of Mozambique and Angola. The idea is to create a regional hub that<br />
will promote industrialisation. The Trade and Industry Minister, Rob<br />
Davies, says that Mozambique resource alone is estimated at between<br />
5.7-trillion m³ and 7.1-billion tm³. <strong>South</strong> Africa's own potential in<br />
hydrocarbons will form part of the strategic planning.<br />
The idea of exploiting the shale gas reserves of the Karoo has<br />
already attracted controversy, but it seems that "fracking" is to go<br />
ahead. Companies that have shown an interest in looking for shale gas<br />
in the Karoo using hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" include Falcon Oil<br />
& Gas, Shell and a consortium comprising Sasol, Statoil ASA (Norway)<br />
and Chesapeake Energy (the US).<br />
Transnet ports are going to be important parts of the strategy for<br />
the GIU: one project already underway shows how this cooperation will<br />
operate. Construction has started<br />
in Saldanha on the West Coast of<br />
an Off-Shore Supply Base (OSSB)<br />
to give specialist support to<br />
boats and rigs involved in oil and<br />
gas operations.<br />
In another development, the<br />
ports of Saldanha, Ngqura (next<br />
to Port Elizabeth) and Richards<br />
Bay (on the KwaZulu-Natal north<br />
coast) will all receive additional<br />
power-generating facilities (powered<br />
by gas) in an investment that<br />
will total R64-billion.<br />
During the course of 2016,<br />
a private power producer joint<br />
venture delivered its second<br />
gas-fired power plant in <strong>South</strong><br />
Africa. The Avon Peaking Power<br />
gas turbine open-cycle power<br />
plant near Durban went online<br />
in July. The joint venture (Peaker<br />
Trust, Japan’s Mitsui & Co, Engie<br />
and Legend Power Solutions) is<br />
also responsible for the 342MW<br />
gas-fired Dedisa Peaking Power<br />
Plant in the Coega IDZ.<br />
Natural gas plants can be<br />
planned and constructed inside<br />
SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS <strong>2017</strong> 60
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