Friday, September 20, 2024

Eskom and energy and chemical company, Sasol, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to "collaboratively explore and research prospective potential liquified natural gas (LNG) requirements".

That is based on a joint statement by the two businesses, following the signing ceremony of the MoU on Friday.

"The collaboration aims to determine the potential volumes that South Africa needs to establish a practical LNG import sector, combined with the enabling infrastructure, and will be facilitated by govt-to-federal government relations exactly where necessary."

"This initiative concentrates on employing gas for ability generation to offer important base load electrical energy and position gas as a essential enabler of re-industrialisation, even though also ensuring ongoing 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 here 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 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 eskom necessary role players and investors required to offer the best prospects for South Africa's energy market, while outlining the challenges associated with eskom vacancies the long-term commitments required for LNG imports," the statement said.