South Africa’s government has state commitment to invest gas owing to its economic importance in the country’s
energy future. The country is concluding plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in Coega, near Port Elizabeth According to the Minister of Energy &
Mineral Resources Gwede Mantashe , Coega is believed to be the hub of LNG import terminal, but there is need to
expand this existing terminal to two terminals. Although the proposed location of this second terminal is still unknown, Richards Bay and Saldanha have previously been mentioned as possible locations. South
African minister believed that the establishment of second terminal will boost the financial fortunes of state-owned utility companies-Eskom and PetroSA. “We think the availability of gas can help alleviate that cost to Eskom of using diesel in peak times of energy demand,” said
Mantashe. “This is what is driving us to look into these LNG complexes.” Eskom currently is running on coal-fired power plants and could be converted to gas powered facility, while PetroSA production output will subsequentl increase with increase in gas feed stock. “This is what is driving us to look into these LN complexes.” “We need an LNG terminal urgently and we have to talk to various investors to get commitment to that terminal because it must not depend on the state.” The South Africa recent establishment of Integrated Resource Policy (IRP) is
designed as enabler to offer potential investors a framework around which the government aims to achieve security of supply andaccess to clean and affordable energy to all South Africans by “We are giving space in the IRP to develop oil and gas”Mantashe said:“We want petroleum to grow to become a massive sector of the economy,”while at the same time pointing out that gas “is not an enemy to renewable but is complementary to it.” He further stated. Investing in domestic gas consumption is the major concern to the government of the country and other important areas of interest are in the mining and manufacturing sectors.