TotalEnergies has lodged its production licence application for Block 11B/12B offshore of South Africa, the national petroleum regulator said on Tuesday, before a deadline expired which might have seen the oil major forfeit its right to develop the huge discovery. The deadline would have expired this week.
The application was filed on Monday and “will be assessed for completeness over the next 14 days”, the Petroleum Agency of South Africa told Reuters in an email.
Bloomberg reported that production from the newly-discovered Block 11B/12B could revive the state-owned fuel agency PetroSA’s 45 000-barrel-a-day Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plant, which has run out of feedstock. South Africa also plans to use the fuel to transition away from coal, which is used to generate nearly all of the nation’s electricity.
If TotalEnergies meets the requirements, obtains environmental authorisation and starts the development – located in an area regarded as one of the toughest ocean environments due to the Agulhas current – output could potentially begin as early as 2026, PetroSA CEO Phindile Masangane told Bloomberg last month.
REUTERS
