The West Coast Business Chamber held their monthly networking session at the Langebaan Country Estate on Thursday 25 April.
The South African Oil and Gas Alliances’ (Saoga) CEO, Niall Kramer, was the guest speaker at the event.
Kramer shared his views on the oil company Total’s recent offshore discovery, about 175 kilometres off the southern coast of South Africa, and some of the benefits it could hold for the South African economy.
According to Fin24, the Brulpadda well (‘Bullfrog well’) – located off Mossel Bay – is one of several highly anticipated exploration prospects for the company.
Total has previously indicated that the field could hold between 500 million to over 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
This discovery is believed to be a “game changer” for South Africa, as the discovery of oil could mean government can reduce their dependence on imported crude oil.
Kramer says the Western Cape potentially holds what he calls an “energy corridor”, with the Astron Refinery (formerly Chevron), the Ankerlig Gas Turbine Power Station and the storage blending tanks near Langebaan, storage facilities and an existing pipeline to Cape Town.
Saoga is in favour of importing Liquefied natural gas (LNG), a natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurised storage or transport.
According to Kramer it was announced in 2016 that Saldanha, Richards Bay and Coega in Port Elizabeth were identified as LNG import ports.
He mentions that with the Brulpadda discovery government needs to reconvene and discuss if this plan will continue or if more, smaller ports will be identified.
Kramer says Saoga’s view is that LNG be introduced into the power system to ensure renewable energy works efficiently and to establish a gas economy.
‘Renewable energy will work better with gas,” he says.
“When the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing not enough energy is generated with battery technology nowhere near ready for renewable energy.”
Kramer says the government is currently working on new legislation that will, among other things, separate oil-and-gas legislature from traditional minerals.
