Friday, September 20, 2024
Eskom and energy and chemical business, Sasol, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to "collaboratively discover and study potential future 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 ascertain the probable volumes that South Africa requires to determine a feasible LNG import industry, along with the enabling infrastructure, and may be facilitated by government-to-government relations in which essential."
"This initiative concentrates on employing gas for ability generation to offer important base load electricity and position gas to be a essential enabler of re-industrialisation, whilst also guaranteeing continued supply to the marketplace by unlocking international LNG resources.
"Furthermore, the collaboration will eskom learnerships 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 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 sasol bursaries strategy, Sasol is working on enabling the future supply of LNG to South Africa by collaborating with companies such as Eskom, existing more info 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.