Page 11 - AfrOil Week 20 2021

AfrOil INVESTMENT AfrOil

These prospective areas are part of the South- Transkei & Algoa licence, this captures the full
ern African Aptian deepwater and ultra-deep- length of all the large deep marine fans in the
water play, which extends around the southern Natal trough, which Impact believes to be a
tip of the African continent, running from the potential super-basin. This combined position
northern part of Namibia’s offshore zone to the offers substantial running room, with multiple
Durban Basin off South Africa’s north-eastern play types underlain by very thick and oil-ma-
coast. This play is home to Brulpadda and Lui- ture Cretaceous source rocks.” ™
perd, where Total has discovered gas conden-
sate deposits within the Outeniqua basin, and
Impact Oil & Gas has a stake in the ultra-deep-
water Namibian block where the Venus-1X well
is due to drilled in the second half of 2021.
The farm-in deal will allow the company to
play a role in the opening of a new frontier, said
Philip Birch, exploration director for Impact Oil
& Gas.
“We are pleased to have concluded this
transaction with Silver Wave Energy for Area
2 in deepwater South Africa,” Birch said. “This
acquisition consolidates Impact’s position along
the transform margin of the South African
Natal Trough, adding over 78,000 square km of
acreage. Importantly, when added to Impact’s Nigeria’s government is promoting the use of LPG as cooking gas (Photo: Wikipedia)

Nedbank announces plan to stop

funding coal, oil and gas projects

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Nedbank revealed last week product-fired power stations with gas-fired
that it had decided to phase out funding for all plants.)
fossil fuel projects. According to the statement, Nedbank is
In a statement, the financial services group taking this step to uphold its pledge to bring its
said that it had taken this step as part of a wider business into line with the goals stated in the
effort to reduce its net carbon emissions to Paris climate agreement.
zero by 2045. It declared that it would work to “We recognise that meeting the Paris agree-
achieve this goal by halting funding to organi- ment objectives will require, among other
sations involved in thermal coal mining by 2025 things, full decarbonisation of the global energy
and direct funding for crude oil and natural gas system by mid-century,” it said. “An orderly exit
exploration. from fossil fuel financing will be necessary well
In practice, the statement explained, this before 2050, given the long lifetimes of the phys-
campaign will entail restricting the amount of ical assets.”
financing offered to thermal coal mining, along This is not the bank’s first move in this direc-
with the trade and infrastructure related to tion. Nedbank had already announced last
thermal coal mining, to 1% of its aggregate total month that it intended to stop providing fund-
lending by 2025. The share will then be reduced ing for coal projects.
further to 0.5% by 2030, it said. The new policy goes further, as it also targets
Nedbank also indicated that it was not plan- oil and gas – and, as the shareholder activist
ning to abandon gas entirely. The group will organisation Just Share noted last week, sets a
continue to provide financing for gas produc- deadline of 2045 rather than following other
tion “where it will play an essential role in facil- banks and companies that are aiming to reach
itating the transition to a zero-carbon energy net zero by 2050.
system by 2050,” the statement noted. Mike Davis, the group’s CFO, asserted that
It stressed, though, that the bank was dedi- the new policy was capable of balancing climate
cated to bringing its level of exposure to fossil imperatives with the demand for reliable energy
fuels down to zero by 2045. (It also made pro- supplies.
visions for some exceptions, including the “Nedbank’s energy policy serves to guide the
integration of gas-fired facilities into renewa- bank’s transition away from fossil fuels while
ble energy schemes as back-up power sources still providing appropriate support to existing
and the replacement of coal and petroleum energy requirements,” he commented. ™

Week 20 19•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11