Govt launches new national petroleum company
Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe has emphasised the importance of good governance in unlocking South Africa’s mineral wealth and rebuilding its refinery capacity.
The minister spoke at the South African National Petroleum Company (SANPC) launch in Johannesburg on Friday.
The new state-owned company merges PetroSA, iGas, and the Strategic Fuel Fund to form a consolidated entity aimed at strengthening energy security, managing petroleum assets efficiently, and positioning South Africa to benefit from its untapped oil and gas potential.
"It is important to ensure that we have good governance," said Mantashe. "Good governance is a very critical component of reducing both operational and financial risks. If you have a problem of governance, that entity is going to run into all sorts of problems."
The SANPC is expected to oversee strategic planning, coordination, and governance of the country’s petroleum resources, supporting sustainable development and inclusive economic growth.
The launch comes at a time when South Africa faces an 11% year-on-year increase in fuel imports, largely due to the closure of local refineries.
Mantashe called for urgency in tapping into South Africa’s reserves.
"This country can have between 5% and 8% growth of the economy annually if we tap our oil and gas reserves. What a strange country. Namibia, next door here, makes huge discoveries of oil deposits. We can't touch them here."
He criticised legal challenges that have stalled exploration projects, particularly from NGOs.
"If we touch oil, we do exploration, we get taken to court, and we stay in court forever. And we have said to the state, to the government, please set up a tribunal of judges to deal with the economic dispute and deadlocks and accelerate the process."
Highlighting the country’s gas potential, Mantashe noted: "Out of the Orange Mouth, there are huge deposits of oil in South Africa. But NGOs take us to court every time we touch any of those. We've tested [shale gas in the Karoo], we've done all sorts of experiments. We sent bottles of that gas to other countries. All came positive that this is an economic deposit."
The minister confirmed the government’s intention to lift the moratorium on shale gas exploration in the Karoo, inviting investors to capitalise on what he described as a proven opportunity.
"We have oil, we have gas, we must exploit it. That's it," Mantashe concluded.
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