Friday, September 20, 2024

Eskom and energy and chemical organization, Sasol, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to "collaboratively investigate and investigate possible long term liquified natural gas (LNG) requirements".

This can be based on a joint statement by the two businesses, following the signing ceremony of the MoU on Friday.

"The collaboration aims to ascertain the potential volumes that South Africa calls for to ascertain a viable LNG import market, together with the enabling infrastructure, and can be facilitated by governing administration-to-governing administration relations wherever required."

"This initiative focuses on working with gas for power generation to offer important base load electrical energy and position gas to be a essential enabler of re-industrialisation, while also guaranteeing ongoing supply to the market by unlocking world wide LNG resources.

"Furthermore, the collaboration will contribute to enhancing South Africa’s energy sasol bursaries 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 strategy, Sasol is working on enabling the future supply check here 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 eskom 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.