Clean natural gas should start flowing from Mozambique’s gas fields in late 2003 and is expected to seriously re-arrange neighbouring South Africa’s energy mix as many industries switch from dirty coal.
Construction of an 865km pipeline — jointly owned by South African synthetic fuel producer Sasol and the Mozambican and South African governments — from the Temane and Pande gas fields in southern Mozambique is ahead of schedule.
Sasol officials said on Thursday the pipeline should cross into South Africa by January.
Most of the 80 million gigajoules (Gj) of natural gas will replace coal as a feedstock at Sasol’s Sasolburg chemicals plant and supplement coal at its synthetic fuels plant in Secunda.
It will also serve some 600 industrial customers, among them steel mills and huge bakeries, along the pipeline. But Sasol also hopes to grow this market significantly, trebling the gas supply to 240 million Gj eventually, as South African industries struggle to meet tightening global demands for a cleaner environment.
”The plan is to displace coal-fired customers within six to seven years. We hope to scale up demand. We’re also assuming the South African economy will grow at an average two percent,” Elmore Marshall, Sasol’s Mozambique natural gas project director said.
Mozambique is expecting a boom from the $1,2-billion project — the second largest single foreign investment since the end of a 16-year-old war a decade ago that crippled the southern African nation, making it one of the world’s poorest nations.
The project is forecast to boost the country’s gross domestic product by about 20%, while the government will receive some $2-billion in taxes and royalties over the project’s 25-year lifespan.
Initially, all the gas will be exported to South Africa. The Mozambican government is entitled to one million Gj of natural gas per year in royalty but Sasol officials said this would likely be paid in cash while the government decides what to do with the gas.
Natural gas currently accounts for two percent of South Africa’s energy mix, with coal accounting for over 90%. Sasol officials say there is potential to grow this to at least 20%.
Gas Process
The Temane and Pande gas fields, about 800km north of capital Maputo, sit on some three trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.
Natural gas will flow from 18 wells at the Temane gas field through 81km of buried pipelines to the Central Processing Facility (CPF) where it will be processed to extract moisture and condensates.
”The gas is then cooled down to four degrees centigrade to prevent it from re-liquefying and is compressed for ease of transportation,” Marshall said.
Some 15 wells will be sank at the neighbouring Pande gas field, scheduled to come on stream in 2006.
Sasol said it was drilling more wells in the area, known for its rich gas reserves since they were discovered 46 years ago by Russians.
”There’s more gas for sure in Mozambique, but we’re not telling where. Everyone wants to know,” said Henk Vorster, a manager at the group’s Sasol Petroleum International division. – Reuters