The\nSouth African cabinet has approved the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019) that\nplotted the path for the nation\u2019s generation technology mix to assuage the\ncurrent energy crisis in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Africa Oil Week, its Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy, Honourable Gwede Mantashe, outlined the role that oil and gas will play going forwards.
He pointed out that hydrocarbons, particularly gas, will be an important part of the energy mix in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\nintend to establish the first LNG hub in the Coega IDZ, in the Eastern Cape\nProvince,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have been talking to investors at this conference and they should take the opportunity to engage with our officials on this matter as it is an opportunity not only to invest, but to also help develop the gas industry in this country.\u201d It\nis also intended as a base to import feedstock for the gas to liquids refinery\nin Mossel Bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe\nframework for supporting this major programme will be announced by my\ndepartment in the near term,\u201d added Mantashe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLinked to this is an amendment to the Gas Act 2001, which will be tabled in Cabinet soon.\u201d \u201cIn\nthe short term the opportunity is to pursue gas import options, in the future,\nlocal and regional gas resources will allow for scaling up within manageable\nrisk levels,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndigenous\ngas like coal-bed methane and, ultimately, local recoverable shale and coastal\ngas are options we are considering. On the Upstream, work is underway on a\nPetroleum Resources Development Bill, which will be before Cabinet soon. \u201cWe\nremain patently aware that one of the oil companies in South Africa played a\npivotal role in the monetisation of the earlier gas finds in Mozambique,\u201d he\nsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEarlier\nthis year we also announced hydrocarbon finds by Total and its partners off the\nMossel Bay coast. We are confident that this find will spur further\ninterest in the upstream potential of South Africa. \u201cOld\nassumptions should give way,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor example, demand is not captive to the national grid; costs are declining as a result of technology advancements and our national utility, Eskom, is being restructured into its regulated functions of generation, transmission and distribution.\u201d \u201cWe\nhave a more than thirty-thousand-megawatt portfolio of existing coal power\nplants, and the abundance of the resource,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNew investments will be directed towards more efficient coal technologies, including underground coal gasification, and carbon capture and storage, to enable us to continue using our coal resources in an environmentally responsible way. The South African cabinet has approved the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019) that plotted the path for the nation\u2019s generation technology mix to assuage the current energy crisis in the country. At Africa Oil Week, its Minister of Minerals Resources and Energy, Honourable Gwede Mantashe, outlined the role that oil and gas will play going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":30127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,481,888,19,260,9059,13,262],"tags":[11690,11693,11694,11700,11691,11688,11701,11689,11692,11699,929,453,6190],"class_list":["post-30126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-government","category-green","category-regional-news","category-regional-news-newsletter","category-south-africa","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-africa-oil-week","tag-coega-idz","tag-eastern-cape-province","tag-gas-act-2001","tag-gwede-mantashe","tag-integrated-resource-plan","tag-irp","tag-irp-2019","tag-lng","tag-mossel-bay","tag-mozambique","tag-south-africa","tag-total"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30126"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30143,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30126\/revisions\/30143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Infrastructure plans to harness gas potential<\/strong>
The plan is that the first LNG import terminal at the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) site will lay the foundation for a breed of new gas to power plants as well as driving the conversion of existing power plants from diesel to gas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mantashe explained that South Africa gas to power technologies will provide the flexibility that is needed to back up the intermittent nature of renewable energy and meet peak demand during busy periods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n\u201cOur oil and gas needs to be harnessed to deliver modern energy services to all\nhouseholds and businesses. Our gas must power plants and other petrochemical\nfacilities in our countries as it reaches for export markets. This will\nensure that we do not always import beneficiated\nhydrocarbons.\u201d
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\nUpstream aspirations for South Africa<\/strong>
\n
\nOn the regional front, Mantashe said that they have noted with great interest\nand a sense of admiration, the major gas finds in the Eastern part of the\ncontinent, especially in Mozambique and Tanzania. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n\u201cWe have taken note of global industry shifts and are encouraged that many\ncountries in our continent have set themselves the vision to enter the global\ngas market and promote the development of a domestic and regional gas\nmarket. Natural gas can improve the efficiencies of many industries\ncurrently using sub-optimal fuel sources in their production processes and\nresulting in a turnaround in the industrial capacity and demand in the region.\u201d
\n
\nA new energy future<\/strong>
\n
\nMantashe explained that the IRP reflects the fact that South Africa\u2019s energy\ngeneration landscape is evolving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coal will continue to play a significant role in electricity generation for South Africa, but renewable energy is growing in importance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe IRP 2019 continues to make provision for significant rollout of renewable energy and storage. Combined with storage, renewables offer an opportunity to produce distributed power closer to where demand is; and to provide off-grid electricity to far-flung areas of the country.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"