Page 4 - AfrOil Week 28 2022

AfrOil COMMENTARY AfrOil

Renergen’s LNG plant has easy access to the N1, N3 and N5 roads (Image: Edison Group)

Renergen’s ambition for

South Africa’s Free State

The company is preparing to launch Phase 1 of the country’s first LNG plant as power shortages persist

STEFANO Marani, the CEO of South Africa’s operations.
Renergen, said on July 11 that his company “The output for this is relatively small. It’s
WHAT: expected to bring the first phase of its onshore about 300-350 kg of helium per day, which is
Renergen will launch LNG plant online in Free State before the end about one and a half times South Africa’s con-
Phase 1 of its LNG plant of the month. sumption, just to put it in context,” he said. And
before the end of July. In an interview with CNBC Africa, Marani with respect to LNG, he said, total production
described the upcoming launch of the facility’s will be equivalent to about 75,000 litres of diesel
WHY: Phase 1 as a milestone. He noted that the unit per year.
The facility will be would be South Africa’s first gas liquefaction The primary purpose of the Phase 1 project,
South Africa’s first LNG unit, as well as the first helium plant in sub-Sa- he noted, was “proof of concept to show that the
plant and sub-Saharan haran Africa. gas was there in Free State and we could separate
Africa’s first liquid helium “When this plant first turns on this month, it the LNG from the liquid helium and we could
production facility. will make South Africa one of only eight coun- sell the two separate streams.”
tries in the world to produce liquid helium,” he Once this milestone has been reached, Ren-
WHAT NEXT: commented. “So it’s quite a big step forward for ergen can start “working on a much more, let’s
The launch is taking the country.” call it, global-scale project, which is our phase
place at a time of extreme
power shortages, so it two project, which we’re anticipating reaching
could stir interest in the Proof of concept financial close in early next year and bringing
LNG-fuelled generators He went on to say that Renergen would be online in early 2025,” Marani continued. The
that Renergen is already producing LNG and helium on a relatively second phase of the plant “will obviously be a
prepared to supply. small scale when the plant’s first phase began significantly larger endeavour,” he remarked.

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