CAPITAL: Pretoria/Cape Town
MONETARY UNIT: Rand
REFINING CAPACITY: 465,000 b/cd
OIL PRODUCTION: 10,000 b/d
OIL RESERVES: 29.4 million bbl
GAS RESERVES: 826 bcf
Engen Ltd., Johannesburg, spun off its E&P assets into Energy Africa, and retained a 60% interest. It hoped to attract foreign capital to fund upstream projects outside Africa. Energy Africa initially accumulated interests in the U.K. North Sea, Norway, and Oman but in 1996-97 diverted its attention to projects elsewhere in Africa, including Gabon.
Malaysia`s state oil company owns 30% of Engen.
Upstream developments
Southern Oil Exploration Corp. (Pty.) Ltd. (Soekor), the state entity that oversees E&P in South Africa, started up the country`s first oil field, Oribi, in mid-1997. In the Bredasdorp basin 140 km southwest of Mossel Bay, it produces about 20,000 b/d of 42° gravity oil from two 7,680 ft wells from an estimated 20 million bbl of reserves. A third well allowed 30,000 b/d of seawater injection.
Soekor said nine oil discoveries within 20 km of Oribi could yield an additional 15-40 million bbl of oil. The basin also contains 20 gas discoveries.
The International Energy Agency estimated that South Africa may have the potential to produce 60-100 billion cu m of coalbed methane and could have 40-60 billion cu m of undiscovered offshore natural gas reserves. However, there is uncertainty about the potential for expanding gas demand in the country.
Pioneer Natural Resources USA signed a 1 year technical cooperation agreement with Soekor for Block 13a/14a off Port Elizabeth. It gave Pioneer exclusive rights to study and negotiate an exploration sub-lease with Soekor for the 2 million acre area, which is in 200 m of water or less.
Energy Africa and Soekor agreed to evaluate deepwater Blocks 3B and 4B off the country`s west coast in the Orange basin about midway between Cape Town and the Namibia border. This area is some distance south of Kudu undeveloped gas field in Namibian waters.
Processing activity
Four refineries have capacities ranging from 95,000-165,000 b/d of crude.
South Africa consumes about 450,000 b/d of liquid fuels. That includes 255,000 b/d of imports and 195,000 b/d manufactured from coal by Sasol and from natural gas by state-owned Mossgas.
