South Africa: Clarity on Petroleum Bill Needed to Drive Growth (By James Chester)
The delay in passing a dedicated bill for the petroleum industry has investors holding back; South Africa needs to chart its path toward developing oil and gas resources in 2021
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, January 27, 2021/APO Group/
James Chester, Senior Director.
A lot has changed in the past year. One thing that has remained constant is the state of stasis of South Africa’s new petroleum code.
Earlier this month, Africa Intelligence reported (https://bit.ly/3pn2MzH) in a headline: ‘Total makes development of block 11B/12B conditional on publication of Petroleum Bill.” The statement once again brings into focus South Africa’s need to create dedicated petroleum legislation, and the country’s lack of a clear position on natural gas.
James Chester, Senior Director.
A lot has changed in the past year. One thing that has remained constant is the state of stasis of South Africa’s new petroleum code.
Earlier this month, Africa Intelligence reported (https://bit.ly/3pn2MzH) in a headline: ‘Total makes development of block 11B/12B conditional on publication of Petroleum Bill.” The statement once again brings into focus South Africa’s need to create dedicated petroleum legislation, and the country’s lack of a clear position on natural gas.
Brulpadda and the New Petroleum Code
Total first tried to drill the Brulpadda prospect in 2014, and was held back by difficult deepwater conditions. In February 2019, the operator drilled again and struck gas condensate. Last year, in October, more deep-sea gas condensate was discovered at the Luiperd prospect. With two discoveries in block 11B/12B, Total and its partners Qatar Petroleum, CNRI and Africa Energy (via consortium Main Street) decided to move forward with di
Energy and electricity policy, planning and regulation in South Africa has been slow and bureaucratic, lacking visionary leadership and marred by uncertainty. Policy positions and actions have tended to be reactive and driven more by crisis management than by forward-looking leadership.
National energy policy and planning
In 1998, the government’s White Paper on Energy Policy detailed a policy of restructuring and liberalisation of the electricity supply industry (ESI). However, it became clear that the political and executive leadership in national, provincial and local government, and the affected ministries, were not of a common mind on the matter, and the ESI incumbents (Eskom and municipalities) had little appetite to restructure themselves. To date, not one of these policy objectives has been met, even though the policy document remains in place.