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The Italian group Eni, which announced the biggest gas discovery in its existence on October 20 in Mozambique, last week increased its estimate of those gas reserves by 50% to 22 500bn cubic feet. This is enough to keep 22.5 plants like PetroSA’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility in Mossel Bay – which can deliver 45 000 barrels of fuel a day – going for around 20 years.
Anton Botes, leading oil and gas industry partner at the Deloitte audit group, said the gas reserves discovered in Mozambique so far almost equal the total production capacity of all of South Africa's fuel refineries. Furthermore, the country's fuel and electricity supply industry capacity is at its peak.
Sasol [JSE:SOL] wants to expand its GTL technology. It imports gas from Mozambique along a pipeline from the Pande and Temane gas fields.
Botes said South Africa would be smart to make a serious investment in gas infrastructure. Countries that have already developed a strong gas infrastructure have invested in entry points for liquefied natural gas (LNG), pipelines, GTL plants and gas-fired power stations. Botes reckons there is sufficient will to do so, but the urgency is lacking.
PetroSA’s plans for a floating LNG offloading facility costing almost R2bn in Vleesbaai close to its southern Cape facility were forestalled by the environmental concerns of the tourism region's inhabitants. PetroSA spokesperson Thabo Mabaso responded to enquiry saying that the state-controlled energy group was not currently considering new plans for an LNG offloading facility, but would certainly consider importing natural gas from Angola and Mozambique if the infrastructure existed.
A new project to develop the gas reserves of the southern Cape further to extend the life of the GTL plant will, according to Mabaso, produce 240bn cubic feet of gas in the first six years. This will keep the plant, which was built in the 1990s based on 1 000bn cubic feet of gas reserves, operating until 2020.
The US group Anadarko, which in the past year has discovered at least 10 000bn cubic feet along the coast of Mozambique, will have its gas fields in full production by 2018. The gas will be exported to markets in India and the rest of Asia. India is currently building an LNG entry point at Kotsji on its southern coast.
On the west coast of Africa Angola expects to export its first natural gas in the first quarter of 2012. This gas is destined for LNG input points at Pascagoula in Mississippi in the United States.
South Africa would be smart to make a serious investment in gas infrastructure.
- Sake24
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