Electricity + Control July 2019

ENERGY MANAGEMENT + ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

The gas supply connection on an industrial site.

South Africa’s natural gas industry has a lot of potential for growth – spurring job creation and new supply chains associated with that… The Brulpadda gasfield In February this year French energy company Total announced that it had discovered a large gas field off the coast of South Africa, some 275 km south of Mossel Bay. Total and its partners own the exploration rights to the Brulpadda block, which covers an area of some 19 000 km 2 . If all goes according to plan with the deepsea exploration drilling, viability studies, environmental impact approvals and multiple other factors, early estimates on time to production indicate six to nine years.

Availability and supply The availability of natural gas and the guarantee of supply in South Africa are ongoing points of discussion. No-one wants to make a substantial capital investment without security of supply. On the first point, it is true that South Africa does not have an oversupply of gas, but there is gas available to industrial and other users based on a first come first served basis. The development of South Africa’s Gas to Power IPP Programme and the Gas Utilisation Master Plan (GUMP) has been in progress for the past few years. There is a clear and pressing need for a framework and plan for the strategic development of natural gas demand and supply in South Africa. On the second point, there are three potential routes to increase South Africa’s natural gas supply: - Piped natural gas imported from neighbouring countries, in particular from Mozambique - Imported liquefied natural gas (shipping LNG) - Domestic natural gas sources, either conven- tional (onshore/offshore) or unconventional (shale gas/ coalbed methane).

(owned by the Republic of Mozambique Pipeline Investments Company). The pipeline runs from Temane in Mozambique to Secunda in South Africa and then to Johannesburg. Most of the gas is used by Sasol for its own operations and the balance is distributed to Gauteng, the Free State, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. In 2013 the total natural gas supply in South Africa was approximately 186 petajoules (PJ) (91% from Mozambique and 9% from Sasol’s Secunda plant). Construction of the ROMPCO Looplines 1 and 2 has increased the supply to about 220 PJ per annum. However, if we consider South Africa’s total gas consumption, this is equivalent to a single medium-sized LNG terminal. Compared to countries like Spain, with a similar national energy requirement, South Africa is using seven to eight times less natural gas. Despite the significant opportunity that natural gas presents for South Africa to improve its carbon footprint and contribute to diversifying the country’s energy mix away from coal, as the government has committed to do, the biggest hurdle is matching the demand and supply of gas at the same time. In order to realise a stable supply of gas, any investor would prefer an anchor client to be secured. However, to secure an anchor client, a stable supply of natural gas must be proven.

Sasol is the sole importer of natural gas from Mozambique, via the 865 km ROMPCO pipeline

Electricity + Control

JULY 2019

19