Page 13 - GLNG Week 36

GLNG AFRICA GLNG

Renergen says its LNG auctions

drew more interest than expected

PROJECTS & RENERGEN said last week that its upcom- to buy for future production streams of LNG and
COMPANIES ing LNG auctions, the first of their kind in helium from Renergen’s LNG plant. The facility
South Africa, had attracted more interest than is currently under construction and due to begin
anticipated. commercial operations in 2021.
Stefano Marani, the company’s CEO, told the The South African company is building its
press last week that Renergen had not expected LNG plant in two stages. In the first stage, it
so many companies to register for the auctions. will connect its natural gas wells near Welkom,
“We expected some interest but certainly not the Virginia and Theunissen in Free State to a new
level received, with significantly more compa- pipeline and also build the gas liquefaction plant Once the gas
nies involved in the auction process than we had and a helium plant.
forecasted,” he said. The latter facility will process helium from liquefaction plant
This high level of interest shows that there is Renergen’s fields, which contain unusually high
room on the domestic market for new types of volumes of the noble gas. Sproule, an interna- comes online,
fuel, he added. “Many companies in South Africa tional energy consulting firm, estimates that
have their own procurement departments deal- these sites may contain as much as 9.74bn cubic the company will
ing in energy, and an auction such as this would metres of helium, or more than the total proven halt production of
never feature in their operational processes. reserves of North America.
However, we were pleasantly surprised to be Once the gas liquefaction plant comes online, CNG and switch
proved wrong,” he commented. the company will halt production of CNG and
Marani did not name any of the interested switch to LNG. It has already arranged to work to LNG.
parties. He was speaking shortly after Renergen with a unit of France’s Total to sell its LNG as a
closed registrations for the auction on August 28. fuel for long-haul trucking. Total will use its fill-
The next step for registered bidders is to sign ing stations along the Johannesburg-Durban
non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), the CEO section of the N3 highway to distribute LNG
said. After meeting this requirement, partici- from the first phase of Renergen’s plant.
pants will have until the end of October to final- The second stage of the LNG plant will then
ise and submit their bids, he stated. begin production in 2023. Part of the produc-
“We now look forward to completing the tion from the second stage will be distributed
information-sharing process and assessing all by Total’s retail outlets along all of South Africa’s
bids received,” Marani said. major highways, and the remaining volumes will
The winners of the auctions will have the right be sold to other buyers.™

Week 36 11•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P13