Gas discovery huge boost for SA economy: Analyst

A leading oil and gas analyst says the gas condensate that has been discovered by Total would be a huge economic boost for South Africa.

It will also place the country on the forefront of new and emerging nations for oil and gas exploration.

French oil and gas company Total announced that it has made a significant gas condensate discovery on the Brulpadda prospects after drilling in deep sea waters, 175 kilometres off the southern coast of South Africa on Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa also welcomed the discovery in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday night, saying government is extremely encouraged by the find and that it could be a game changer for the country’s energy sector.

Chirag Rathi a senior consultant at Frost and Sullivan oil and gas says, “It’s going to benefit in the longer term. This is a world class discovery. I think the estimates are close to a billion barrels of gas condensate and it’s an understanding that it will lead to a lot of downstream construction as well as construction of gas processing plants and so on, potentially even refineries in the future. I think it will take some time to know how the sector itself evolves as the new players come in but it certainly puts South Africa on the map of potentially new and emerging nations for oil and gas exploration and production.”

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