Despite the bleak landscape, there are significant opportunities for South Africa in the oil and gas sector, according to David van der Spuy of the Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa).
Speaking at the Oil & Gas Summit in Cape Town earlier this month, he said South Africa had a wide diversity of local and international explorers currently active both onshore and offshore.
“Despite challenges such as the low oil price and the regulatory uncertainty, most of the country’s acreage is under licence or under application for exploration which we believe shows that our acreage is very attractive.”
Van der Spuy said in the past few years a great deal of new data had been collected on both offshore and onshore areas that had previously been unexplored and interest remained as high as ever.
This was proved when BHP Billiton recently relinquished its exploration block. “The oil and gas industry is known as one where companies will follow the lead of a major player and so there were questions on whether more companies would exit locally,” he said. “But instead we immediately received a high number of applications for the block, showing that interest in the South African oil and gas sector exists and that opportunities are being identified.”
He said a process of reviewing the applications was currently under way.
He said with much of South Africa’s oil and gas potential situated in ultra-deep waters, taking into account the low oil price as well as the massive gas finds in neighbouring countries such as Mozambique - on top of the current regulatory uncertainty in light of the ongoing concerns around the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) Amendment Bill - the organisation remained extremely positive about South Africa’s potential in the oil and gas sector.
