Indaba told to develop SA’s gas market
South Africa’s energy sector should focus on developing a market for gas, despite speculation on whether the country has shale or off-shore gas within its own borders or not.
This is according to the gas industry experts speaking at the Africa Energy Indaba in Sandton yesterday.
South African Oil and Gas Alliance (Saoga) CEO Ebrahim Takolia said: “Currently, the primary energy demand from gas in South Africa is 2%.
“Even if there is no gas in South Africa, the gas market should still be developed.”
Upturn in Africa’s oil, gas deals market expected this year
As oil and gas companies continue to focus on portfolio optimisation by further investing in assets that are generating strong returns and selling assets that have lower returns, merger and acquisi¬tion (M&A) activity in the African oil and gas sector is expected to remain robust this year.
In 2013, Africa recorded about 17 percent of the global major deals amounting more than $12 billion done in the continent. It followed North America which had about 38 percent of the activities and the Former Soviet Union which cruised with 28 percent of oil and gas deals done in the globe to¬wards the end of third quarter of 2013.
Exciting Times Ahead For SA Oil, Gas Industry
It was announced recently that Total intends to sell its South African coal assets and step up its exploration for oil and gas in South Africa. This announcement is of interest for a variety of reasons.
Until the recent advent of the shale gas saga, South Africa's potential oil and gas reserves were always considered insignificant compared with the country's other non-renewable resources.
From a historical perspective, after almost a quarter of a century of sporadic and fairly amateur terrestrial oil exploration efforts that unearthed only negligible accumulations, the government resolved in 1913 to heed the calls of the public and to obtain the views of the best available overseas expert.
Kenya Discovers Oil, Natural Gas In Lamu
Oil exploration is the real deal in Kenya at the moment, as exploration companies have struck black gold repeatedly in recent times.
The latest find was at the tourist town of Lamu where UK-based independent oil and gas exploration firm, British Gas had been working.
“British Gas Group has found oil and natural gas,” Energy Cabinet Secretary Davies Chirchir announced to a forum of energy sector stakeholders in Nairobi.
He added however that the discovery was “very prospective”, but not commercial.
