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Cape Town - South Africa is creating a unit to import liquefied natural gas for power plants as suppliers, including Cheniere Energy, await fuel tenders for annual shipments of at least 3 million tons.
The Gas Industrialisation Unit will initially focus on importing LNG as South Africa seeks to reduce its dependence on coal-fired power, Garth Strachan, a deputy-director general at the department of trade and industry, said in a presentation in Cape Town.
Eventually, the unit will also seek to tap domestic sources of natural gas, he said.
"We’ve got to ensure that the oil and gas industry becomes one of the pillars of industrialisation going forward," said Strachan.
Houston-based Cheniere is among companies interested in supplying South Africa’s gas-to-power program, which plans to add 3 126 megawatts of capacity between 2019 and 2025. That could require annual LNG imports of about $530m, according to Trevor Sikorski, an analyst with Energy Aspects in London.
"Almost anyone with gas is looking for demand at the moment, but the most competitive supply" for South Africa would be from Nigeria, Angola, the US and possibly Qatar, Sikorski said.
Mozambique option
The new unit, which requires final approval from the energy ministry, will consider regional gas supplies from Mozambique and Botswana, Strachan said. Mozambique’s state-owned Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos expects Anadarko Petroleum and Eni SpA to make final investment decisions on LNG export projects later this year.
South Africa also announced plans last week for legislation to clarify rules for the production and transportation of natural gas, paving the way for the development of shale-gas reserves in the semi-desert Karoo region.
