Domestic natural gas and helium producer Renergen has obtained laboratory results on the helium concentrations from recently drilled wells P007 and MDR1, which has returned a helium concentration of 3.15%.
Wildcard well P007 returned a concentration of 4.38%.
Renergen on March 29 said that, since its March 11 announcement, the flow rate at MDR1 has increased by almost 90% to about 164 000 standard cubic feet a day, which is consistent with expectations as lost circulation drilling fluids introduced into the borehole dissipate and dry out.
“MDR1 is just 300 m away from MDR5 and 600 m from HDR1, which are both blowers with helium concentrations of about 2%, so getting a concentration of 3.15% was a very pleasant surprise,” CEO Stefano Marani commented.
He added that “it will be interesting to see when and if the helium concentration reduces and stabilises in line with the nearby wells, but a key take-away from this excellent result is that, despite the wells being so close, there does not appear to be any immediate interference between the wells which is a great result for our reserve update”.
The results are a “big leap” forward in corroborating Renergen’s geological modelling of the Virginia gas project, and the potential additional supply of over 40 kg of helium a day from a single well "is quite an outstanding result", the company notes. 

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Emerging natural gas and helium producer Renergen has completed the commissioning of its second compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station, in Johannesburg.

The filling station will begin supplying CNG to Black Knight Logistics for a fleet of about 15 trucks, starting this month.

In a statement issued on Monday, Renergen said using natural gas as an alternate fuel source has been a significant topic in South Africa’s automotive industry for years, owing to the growing need to curtail dependency on conventional fossil fuels, the soaring price of diesel and petrol, and the need to reduce harmful carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Black Knight, along with Babcock Transport Solutions, have converted the run on a combination of CNG and diesel simultaneously, known as diesel dual fuel (DDF).

DDF vehicles have lower running costs and substantially lower greenhouse-gas emissions, compared with vehicles running on diesel alone.

Babcock is the sole distributor of DAF Trucks in Southern Africa and is tackling carbon emissions by exploring alternative and more efficient fuel sources by bringing dual fuel CNG-powered DAF Trucks to the regional market, while maintaining the trucks’ full warranty, even when using dual fuel alternatives.

Babcock is the first to offer fully supported natural gas dual fuel DAF vehicles to the long-haul and regional transport segments.

The CNG filling station has been established as the dedicated station for Black Knight, as part of its transition to more sustainable fuels. The station will be used to service the trucks Black Knight is converting to run on natural gas.

The filling station will operate until the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility at Renergen’s Virginia gas project, in the Free State, comes on line in 2021, at which point all CNG will be replaced in favour of the more energy-dense LNG.

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Anadarko Petroleum approved a $25-billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique that could help transform the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

CEO Al Walker signed off on what he called the biggest ever foreign investment in Africa. Anadarko sees potential for Mozambique to become one of the largest LNG suppliers in the world, and the project – expected to export the fuel to countries in Asia and Europe – will play a big part. It will be funded with $11-billion of equity and $14-billion of debt.

“Over time this project will double this country’s GDP,” Walker said at the signing ceremony in Maputo with Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi.

It’s taken the American company almost a decade to green-light the development after discovering gas in Mozambican waters in 2010. The country had to draft new regulations for its nascent oil and gas industry, even as uncertain global demand for LNG slowed plans. The government expects $95-billion of revenue over 25 years from this project and others led by Exxon Mobil and Eni.

“It is the start of a new era for Mozambique,” said Darias Jonker, a London-based director at consultants Eurasia Group. The size of these projects “will bring tens of billions of dollars of investment” and revenue to the government, he said.

Developing the hydrocarbon resources is crucial for the southern African nation, which has struggled to service its debt in the past. Nyusi could use Anadarko’s planned investment in the project, called Mozambique LNG, to showcase his achievements ahead of elections in October, and hope to compensate for problems with borrowings, according to Jonker.

Mozambique LNG is at the center of a new restructuring deal the government reached with a core group of Eurobond holders last month. While investors will no longer have access to future revenue from the project, the in-principle agreement allows the administration to pay a lower interest rate until after the country’s gas production begins in 2023

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Energy solutions company Novo Energy on Friday launched a R130-million large-scale natural gas compression facility at the Highveld industrial park, in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga.

The facility provides cleaner, and more reliable and cost-effective energy, compared with coal and other petroleum products.

At the launch, CEO Andri Hugo said the facility would play a significant role in helping to unlock South Africa’s power constraints, while also reducing carbon intensity.

“South Africa is a coal-based economy with about 77% of electricity generated from coal and a large portion of transportation fuels derived from the same source. Add to that the large percentage of industrial processes that use coal and you have an entire industrial sector built around cheap coal and electricity.

“But we depend heavily on imported resources for our hydrocarbon supply and this has resulted in exposure to international energy supply uncertainty, issues of reliability and price volatility,” he pointed out.

He added that although South Africa’s gas market is small, accounting for only 3% of the energy mix, the inherent benefits have the potential to change the economy by stimulating economic growth, development stability and job creation.

“Africa has been blessed with an abundance of resources, including minerals, energy, natural resources and human capital. A combination of these, through industrial activity, can address most of the socioeconomic challenges we face.

“Natural gas will play an important role in our energy mix through power generation, thermo-industrial applications and transportation and the vast natural gas discoveries on the continent will provide the key to unlocking our gas economies,” Hugo further pointed out.

Novo business development manager Justin Austin, meanwhile, said natural gas was the simplest hydrocarbon available, making it suitable as a feedstock for fertilisers, plastics and energy applications.

Natural gas can also be used as a heating fuel for industrial, commercial and residential applications, steam generation and direct heating applications, natural gas-run vehicles and power generation, he pointed out.

The eMalahleni gas compression station is Novo’s thirteenth – and its largest – such facility.

Austin said the most important application for natural gas going forward would be for power generation in remote locations, especially for remote mines that do not have grid accessibility and are using diesel as an energy source.

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posted by Liesl Frankson on September 15, 2017 in Construction, News, Other infrastructure, Transport​
A new open-access liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant was opened this week at the Port of Saldanha on the West Coast of South Africa.
The 30-year contract for the planning, construction and operation of the terminal was awarded to Sunrise Energy, a partnership between the South African private and public sectors, by Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) in 2013.
Saldanha Port Manager Vernal Jones said the R109 billion investment would create broader LPG access in the Western Cape and aid in increasing the use of environmentally-friendly and affordable LPG in the national energy mix.
“The terminal will boost the capacity of existing LPG distributors as well as enable the entry of new small, medium-sized and microenterprises, who have had restricted access to the market because of supply constraints and lack of access to enabling infrastructure,” he added.
The future of LPG imports and exportsThe facility comprises a 10.9 hectare landside terminal and waterside multi-buoy mooring connected via a three kilometre subsea and over-land pipeline.
Phase 1 of the terminal entails five tanks with 5 500 tonnes of storage, allowing for a monthly capacity of 17 500 tonnes of LPG. Construction of Phase 1 was completed on schedule and a trial shipment was handled at the terminal at the end of May 2017.
Phases 2 and 3 of the project will see modular expansion that will enable the terminal to meet regional LPG supply demands for the next 27 years.
The Sunrise Energy Terminal is poised to become the country’s largest such facility for handling both imports and exports of LPG the ports authority said.
Earlier this month TNPA’s 24-year concession awarded to black-empowered Burgan Cape Terminals saw a new independent fuel storage, distribution and loading facility become fully operational at the Port of Cape Town.

Commission’s Report relating to the market enquiry into the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Sector
Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Energy
05 September 2017

Download here (Pdf)......

Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Godfrey Oliphant will on Tuesday host an information-sharing session with interested and affected communities and organisations in the Western Cape on the potential of shale gas development through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The Deputy Minister will engage communities on the impact of shale gas development on water resources, the environment, and the economic potential to be derived from development of the resource.

The session will take place at the Rustdene sports ground, in Beaufort West.
After years of contention, Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane earlier this month took a decision to proceed with the development of shale gas in the country’s Karoo formation, “based on the balance of available scientific evidence”. 

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​​Electricity generation using gas as a fuel has great potential to meet the growing needs of many African countries, especially with a peaking-plant application, according to Cape Town-based engineering firm MTU South Africa, a subsidiary of UK-based engines, propulsion systems and distributed power generation plant manufacturer Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

Research suggests that the capacity to supply electricity to cities across the continent will rise from 90 GW in 2012 to 380 GW by 2040. This is further exacerbated by the belief that half of the global population growth is expected to occur in Africa in the next 20 years.

www.mtuonsiteenergy.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_teaserErdgas_4000_a508459c1b.jpgSource.....

Leading South African financial institution Standard Bank has confirmed that it is keen to participate in the funding of South Africa’s gas-to-power (GTP) programme and that it is eagerly awaiting the release of the project information memorandum, outlining government’s preferred procurement model.
The Department of Energy (DoE) envisages the development of 3 700 MW of new gas-fired power generation, with 3 100 MW to be developed by independent power producers (IPPs) and the 600 MW balance in a public-private partnership with State-owned companies.

​Standard Bank head of power Rentia van Tonder tells Engineering News Online that the bank, which has been a major funder of Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) projects and which is supporting participating bidders for the first coal baseload IPP bid window, is keen to participate.
That said, she expects the GTP programme to raise a number of funding considerations, with government’s IPP Office showing a preference for a “bundled” offer that integrates the infrastructure required to import gas, including a floating storage regasification unit, and the power generation projects.

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