South African petrochemical company Sasol’s (SOL) natural gas project (SNGP) is on schedule and on budget, executive director Pat Davies said on Wednesday.
Davies was providing an update of the project at a press briefing in Johannesburg. Construction of the $1,2-billion natural gas project is on schedule and the 865 kilometre pipeline between Secunda and Vilanculos in Mozambique is set to cross the border between the two countries early in March.
“The SNGP is continuing at significant momentum and overall construction progress is 47% actual completion against the 43% envisaged to date. We are positive that the first gas will arrive at Secunda during the first quarter of 2004,” Sasol CE Pieter Cox said.
Davies hailed the project as one of “Africans providing solutions to African problems.” He said the gas had been discovered in Mozambique many decades ago, being partially developed by first the Americans, then the Russians and then the Americans again.
“It is appropriate that it is now a project by Africans for Africans. Surely that is what Nepad is all about,” he added. He said once completed the project will contribute more than 20% to Mozambique’s GDP.
Construction of the central processing facility at Temane in Mozambique, where the gas will be cleaned before it is piped to Secunda, has advanced to 43% and work on the control room, substation and underground piping is nearing completion, Sasol said.
Work on the pipeline is 51% complete and more than 3% ahead of the 47,5% completion rate planned to date.
The pipeline runs over 525 kilometres from Vilanculos in Northern Mozambique to the South African border and from there a further 340 kilometres to Secunda.
Sasol also revealed that drilling operations at the Pande and Temane gas fields in Northern Mozambique are set to commence in early March. A drilling rig and service rig contracted from an Australian operator are en route to Maputo harbour and are scheduled to arrive at the end of February.
A total of 18 vertical wells will be drilled at Pande and 15 at Temane. The drilling camp is expected to be operational by early March and the first of three gas processing trains, to accept gas from the wells at Temane, is expected to be functional by mid-August.
Pande will be brought on line three years after Temane begins production. Sasol added that construction is in progress to convert the Sasolburg plant from coal based to natural gas based operations for the production of chemicals by Sasol Chemical Industries. The conversion is scheduled for completion by May 2004.
The company reports that the SNGP has created 2 442 job opportunities to date in Mozambique, 76% of which are for Mozambican citizens. A programme to uplift local communities at Vilanculos through basic skills training has resulted in employment for 340 Mozambicans at the central processing facility.
Sasol has also committed $5-million on several social development projects in Mozambique along the pipeline and $1-million in South Africa up to the completion of the project in 2004. – I-Net-Bridge