Community and civil society opposition to oil and gas exploration in SA is placing the country at risk of “slipping further into poverty” while other African countries stand to benefit from the exploitation of significant oil and gas reserves in those countries.
This was minister of mineral resources & energy Gwede Mantashe warning that investors who were blocked by the courts from exploring for oil and gas along SA’s coastline will simply take their money elsewhere.
Speaking on Friday at the National Energy Dialogue, hosted by the Central Energy Fund in partnership with Financial Mail and Mkokeli Advisory, Mantashe said that SA wants to be “an angel” of clean energy, but meanwhile the country is “drifting further into poverty”.
The country needs a discussion on how it will balance the protection of the environment with the need to develop the economy, he said, warning that SA could lose further ground as a regional economic powerhouse to other countries in Africa that are embracing the search for gas and oil reserves within their borders.
Earlier this month both Shell and TotalEnergies announced discoveries of possible gas and oil reserves off the coast of Namibia and last year the Italian multinational oil and gas company ENI announced a major offshore find of oil and gas resources in Ivory Coast that prompted the formation of a partnership between the energy giant and the Ivorian government.
Last year ENI terminated plans to explore for oil and gas off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal after facing legal challenges from community organisations that oppose the use of seismic drilling for underwater oil and gas exploration, and due to delays from the government to implement the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill.
In December, the Makhanda high court granted an urgent interdict, which was recently upheld, halting further seismic exploration for oil by Shell on the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast that had been sought by a coalition of Wild Coast communities.
In February the high court in Cape Town granted a similar interdict to a group of fishermen who opposed seismic exploration along the Western Cape coast by Australian Geoscience data company Searcher.
In SA, gas and oil are seen as “dirty products” but they have an important role to play — particularly gas, for its potential to contribute to base load electricity supply, he said.
According to Mantashe, the government intends to establish and develop an upstream petroleum industry that would require exploration for underground or underwater crude oil and natural gas fields.
Mantashe referred to discoveries of gas offshore of Mossel Bay saying that this proves that SA does have gas resources.
“We believe the Upstream Petroleum Development Bill that is in parliament will assist in ensuring that the country can explore and exploit its natural resources systematically,” he said.
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