Namibia’s Kudu gasfield to produce in 2017

Reuters | 24th April 2013 | Engineering News

Namibia expects to produce natural gas by the second half of 2017 at its much-delayed, 800-megawatt Kudu gas-to-power plants, Obeth Kandjoze, MD of the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia, told a gas conference on Tuesday.

The Kudu project near Oranjemund in south-western Namibia will pump gas from the Kudu field about 170 km (100 miles) offshore to a combined cycle gas power plant.

The power plant will be connected to the Namibian and South African electricity grids.

SOURCE: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/namibias-kudu-gasfield-to-produce-in-2017-official-2013-04-24?utm_source=feedly

Gas Amendment Bill 2013 approved

Engineering News 19 April 2013.

Cabinet has approved the Gas Amendment Bill 2013.

“This paves the way for the Bill to be published in the Gazette for public comment,” a Cabinet statement issued by the Government Communication and Information System said on Friday.

Uninterrupted supply and development of natural gas to the economy is critical…

(Contributor’s note: This should smooth the way for increased use of natural gas instead of coal or nuclear based power. The gas would come from Mozambique by pipeline and via imported Liquefied Natural Gas from new East African sources, and other international sources. This is in line with NPC recommendations to exploit natural gas as an energy source over coal and nuclear.)

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Cabinet has approved the Gas Amendment Bill 2013

BuaNews, SA government news service | 19th April 2013 | Engineering News

“This paves the way for the Bill to be published in the Gazette for public comment,” a Cabinet statement issued by the Government Communication and Information System said on Friday.

Uninterrupted supply and development of natural gas to the economy is critical.

This Amendment Bill seeks to address the loopholes, omissions and challenges experienced in the process of implementing and enforcing the Gas Act by the Department of Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.

The Bill will review compliance, monitoring and enforcement in the natural gas sector, to incorporate new transportation technologies of natural gas as well as other unconventional gases not included in the current Gas Act.

The amendments also seek to confer a statutory mandate to set, monitor, approve and regulate distribution tariffs in a prescribed and transparent manner.

It also seeks to support mobile gas storage through regulations to enhance health and safety matters.

In the Bill “Gas” means – all hydrocarbon gases (transported by pipeline), including natural gas, artificial gas, hydrogen rich gas, methane rich gas, synthetic gas, coal bed methane gas, liquefied natural gas, compressed natural gas, re-gasified liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas or any combination of these.

SOURCE: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/gas-amendment-bill-2013-approved-2013-04-19

Majors court kingpin Eni on Mozambique gas bonanza

Engineering News 11 December 2012.

MILAN – A year after Eni announced the largest discovery in its exploration history, a giant gas find in Mozambique, rival oil companies are falling over each other to get a piece of the action.

“It was clear from the start it was a major discovery that changed the ball game,” a source close to the Milan-based company told Reuters.

And the find is getting bigger by the day, drawing interest from some of the world’s largest energy players, many of which are coming late to the party in the world’s most prolific area for new discoveries…

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More gas found off Moz coast

Business Report 5 December 2012.

Maputo –

Italian energy company ENI announced on Wednesday new gas finds off the eastern coast of Mozambique – the third this year – entrenching the country’s position as an emerging gas power.

“The new discoveries add six trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas… to Area 4, confirming at least 68 tcf (1.9 trillion cubic metres) of gas already discovered,” ENI said in a statement.

The total deposit is roughly equal to global production for two years, or the known reserves of Kuwait…

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Good Gas, Bad Gas

National Geographic 19 November 2012.

Burn natural gas and it warms your house. But let it leak,
from fracked wells or the melting Arctic, and it
warms the whole planet.

By Marianne Lavelle

Photograph by Mark Thiessen

The last rays of sun filter through the snow-covered spruces along the shore of Goldstream Lake, just outside Fairbanks, Alaska. Out on the lake Katey Walter Anthony stares at the black ice beneath her feet and at the white bubbles trapped inside it. Large and small, in layer upon layer, they spread out in every direction, like stars in the night sky. Walter Anthony, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, grabs a heavy ice pick and wraps the rope handle around her wrist. A graduate student holds a lighted match above a large bubble; Walter Anthony plunges the pick into it.

Gas rushing from the hole ignites with a whoomp that staggers her. “My job’s the worst, because usually you catch on fire,” she says, smiling. In the gathering twilight she and her team ignite one bubble after another…

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PetroSA to look anew at LNG project

Business Day Live 8 November 2012.

NATIONAL oil company PetroSA has revived its plans to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to supplement gas supplies to its Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plant, its main source of revenue, the company said on Wednesday.

Importing the gas will prolong the lifespan of the refinery amid dwindling gas supplies from existing offshore gas fields.

It has appointed the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to manage the environmental impact assessment process for its proposed liquefied natural gas project in Mossel Bay.

The process is due to commence next month, PetroSA said…

(Editor’s note: This sounds reasonable, but oh for an Integrated energy Plan, to make sure all the right things are considered and debated.)

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