Theresa Smith

1 month ago | esi-africa.com | Theresa Smith

While the Department of Forestry and Fisheries (DFFE) may not seem the automatic government department to be involved in oil and gas development in South Africa, DFFE’s work on South Africa’s draft Oceans Economy Master Plan includes an entire sub-section on the oil and gas sector.

1 month ago | esi-africa.com | Theresa Smith

Regarding oil and gas exploration and infrastructure in South Africa, Paul Eardley-Taylor,  Gas Sector Lead at Standard Bank, identified four key issues while delivering a global overview of the sector at the Southern Africa Oil and Gas Conference in Cape Town. Onshore discoveries of gas and helium have seen Renergen start producing helium, “but we see a problem with permitting.”“Permitting is too slow,” said Eardley-Taylor while making his first point about onshore exploration in SA.

1 month ago | esi-africa.com | Theresa Smith

Primary energy consumption is climbing worldwide, driven by increasing populations, gross domestic product (GDP) and technology developments and thus, the energy transition, in some ways, could also be labelled an “energy addition”. As an example, digital infrastructure uses as much energy as the global airline industry, and twice as much electricity as Japan.

1 month ago | esi-africa.com | Theresa Smith

Around 2,402MW of solar PV was installed across Africa in 2024, slightly less than the 3,076MW installed in 2023. This is due to delayed project development in North Africa and the continent’s leading solar market (South Africa) returning to regular annual solar installation rate after a boom in 2023.

1 month ago | esi-africa.com | Theresa Smith

Rising electricity costs were referenced twice in South African Finance Minister’s Budget Speech on Tuesday (12 March) with energy and water making up a small part of his overall talk compared to electricity’s outsized influence in the speech over the past few years. Stabilising the South African electricity supply is one of the cornerstones of Operation Vulindlela, which Godongwana mentioned explicitly several times during his speech.