Gas producer Renergen has completed its annual maintenance at its Virginia plant in the Free State and has resumed liquid natural gas (LNG) production.
The group said on Friday the notified Eskom maintenance was now complete with power fully restored to the facility.
The market welcomed the news, with the company’s share price jumping 7.2% to R10.70 by later afternoon on the JSE.
“The plant was started earlier this week, and we resumed LNG production as of September 19. The helium module is being started and will be brought down to temperature in order to recommence filling,” it said.
“The scheduled maintenance was completed within our scheduled timelines and undertaken for the first time managed and supervised completely by our own engineering, operations and maintenance departments since having taken control of the process plant,” said CEO Stefano Marani.
“We look forward to continued improvement and stability in the system following the maintenance, and we look forward to filling and delivering containers for customers again,” he said.
Earlier in September, the group announced it has appointed Standard Bank as a joint underwriter in its long-awaited planned Nasdaq initial public offering (IPO) and had secured a short-term funding facility with the bank to provide it with funding leading into the IPO.
Business Day reported in November 2023 that Marani was living in Texas, the US. He said at the time that it would be easier to raise funds in the US for the company’s proposed Nasdaq listing.
Renergen holds onshore exploration and production rights for more than 187,000ha of gas and helium fields across Welkom, Virginia and Theunissen in the Free State.
The emerging gas producer, valued at R1.6bn on the JSE, was supposed to list on the Nasdaq within the required three months of getting approval from its Australian shareholders in April 2023, but this was delayed.
The group said on August 12 that its helium production train was fully operational, allowing for commercial sale of the gas.
With the helium project successfully under way, the group has established SA as one of the eight countries worldwide capable of producing liquid helium.
Renergen has long been pursuing production of the gas, having said previously that it would be producing 300kg of liquid helium a day by 2021, before shifting this date to July 2022 and then late 2023.
After these production delays, the company struggled to attract enough backing from large institutional investors. This prompted it to seek a listing on the Nasdaq, where it believes the global helium market is better appreciated.
With Jacob Webster
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.