Friday, September 20, 2024
Eskom and energy and chemical organization, Sasol, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to "collaboratively investigate and research potential future liquified natural gas (LNG) requirements".
That is based on a joint statement by the two firms, following the signing ceremony of the MoU on Friday.
"The collaboration aims to find out the likely volumes that South Africa needs to determine a feasible LNG import market, combined with the enabling infrastructure, and can be facilitated by federal government-to-govt relations where required."
"This initiative focuses on working with fuel for power generation to supply crucial base load energy and position gas to be a key enabler of re-industrialisation, even though also ensuring continued supply to the marketplace by unlocking global LNG resources.
"Furthermore, the collaboration will contribute to enhancing South Africa’s energy mix and enable the country's energy transition and decarbonisation," the joint statement read.
The MoU is expected to "explore sourcing gas within South Africa, the Southern African Development Community region, and other parts of the African continent, in addition to evaluating long-term LNG contracting".
"This will support the gas requirements for Eskom’s planned coal power station repowering sasol bursaries and conversion to gas in the long term. The parties will also engage other state entities to enable an LNG value chain in South Africa.
"As part of its revised gas strategy, Sasol is working on enabling the future supply of LNG to South Africa by collaborating with companies such as Eskom, existing and future customers, suppliers, and infrastructure developers.
"The research findings from the first phase of the Sasol-Eskom collaboration will guide the necessary role players and investors required to offer the best prospects for South Africa's energy market, while outlining the challenges associated with the long-term commitments required for LNG imports," the statement said.