Page 73 - Vol 28 Issue 29 2019

insight oil

This is when gas started to feature more The future
strongly in South Africa’s energy policy. A South Africa’s
few turning points occurred. One was the existing institutional
substantial shale gas potential reported infrastructure can be
by the United States energy information used to develop the
agency. This encouraged policy liquefied natural gas
makers to include gas into the energy industry. That won’t
mix. Second, natural gas discoveries be an easy task. There
in Mozambique and Tanzania raised the are major efforts
potential for regional trade. required to amend Pipe Joining Solutions
Thirdly, South Africa experienced an the Gas Act, the Ports
electricity crisis, culminating in blackouts Act, Mineral and
in 2008. In response, the state power Petroleum Resources
utility Eskom turned to the costly Development Act,
diesel Open Cycle Gas Turbines. But this and the Electricity
was hugely expensive and Eskom burnt Regulations Act, in
through its operating budgets to ensure a order to accommodate
steady supply of electricity. the LNG initiative.
Global trends: the main driver Gas can also play
During the third phase, from 2013 an important role in
to 2018, gas development started the restructuring of
to gain momentum driven by major the electricity system.
global trends. These include the trend As there are trend
toward liquefaction of gas which enabled towards transactive
transportation of gas to places where energy, where utilities
pipelines weren’t possible. moves towards
customer centric
Secondly, gas prices began changing demand, in that grids
from long-term to short-term contracts. become less passive
This opened up the trading of gas to a and deterministic,
competitive, spot market. As a result, and more active and
new buyers have been attracted into the stochastic. Here gas
sector. could play a crucial
Thus, by 2015, the Department of Energy role, as it has features
had announced the Gas Independent which are flexible and
Power Producers Procurement modular enabling a
Programme (Gas I4P) with a procurement decentralised system.
of 3.7 GW electricity generation. Lastly, there are
opportunities for gas
By August 2018 the country’s draft as potential feed-stock
integrated resources plan had gas playing in industrial processes,
a significant role in future electricity which requires
generation. The indications were that gas strategic reassessment
would contribute as much as 15% of the of existing industries.
installed capacity mix by 2030. This seems (Material supplied
to suggest that energy policy makers by The Conversation
believe gas to power has the necessary fit, Africa).
form and compatibility with the electricity
system.
Another factor that’s driven interest in gas
is the belief that it could be the country’s
next commodity resource, as the country’s
mining future is in decline. Some actors in victaulic.com | +27 (0)82 963 3667
the oil and gas community are pushing
for the country’s mining skills to be used
in the gas sector. This is informed by the
view that the exploration and drilling skills Marie Blanche Ting
used in the gas fields are similar to those AD-10755
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used in mining.

AFRICAN POWER Mining & Oil Review Vol 28, Issue 29, 2019 | 73