Friday, September 20, 2024
Eskom and energy and chemical organization, Sasol, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to "collaboratively discover and investigate potential long term liquified natural gas (LNG) requirements".
This is according to a joint statement by the two firms, following the signing ceremony from the MoU on Friday.
"The collaboration aims to find out the possible volumes that South Africa requires to ascertain a feasible LNG import sector, combined with the enabling infrastructure, and can be facilitated by govt-to-government relations the place necessary."
"This initiative concentrates on utilizing fuel for electrical power generation to deliver crucial base load electrical energy and position gas to be a crucial enabler of re-industrialisation, though also making certain ongoing supply to the market by unlocking world-wide LNG resources.
"Furthermore, the collaboration will 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 sasol learnerships 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 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 eskom learnerships market, while outlining the challenges associated with the long-term commitments required for LNG imports," the statement said.