Friday, September 20, 2024
Eskom and energy and chemical organization, Sasol, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to "collaboratively investigate and investigate potential long term liquified natural gas (LNG) requirements".
This 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 prospective volumes that South Africa involves to determine a feasible LNG import industry, combined with the enabling infrastructure, and may be facilitated by authorities-to-authorities relations in which required."
"This initiative focuses on utilizing gas for energy generation to supply crucial base load energy and position gas to be a crucial enabler of re-industrialisation, while also making sure continued supply to the marketplace by unlocking global LNG resources.
"Furthermore, the collaboration will contribute to enhancing South Africa’s energy mix and eskom 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 eskom learnerships 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 necessary role players and investors required to offer the best prospects for South Africa's energy market, while outlining the challenges associated with the here long-term commitments required for LNG imports," the statement said.