James Lorimer shares latest facts on nation’s untapped treasure.
The most astonishing part about this hugely bullish keynote to the BizNews@10 event, is that it was delivered by a politician who has no inventive to talk up the country’s immediate economic potential. James Lorimer is the official opposition’s shadow minister of Mineral Resources, and hot favourite to land the portfolio’s cabinet position should the Multiparty Charter for SA prevail in the 2024 national election. Yet here he is, telling the BizNews tribe that a massive oil and gas resource is about to be unlocked, catapulting the country’s economic prospects. I guess his journalistic background kicked in – news as good as this simply cannot be kept under wraps. – Alec Hogg
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The edited version of DA Shadow Minister James Lorimer’s keynote address to the conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of BizNews.
I sit on the Mineral Resources and Energy Portfolio Committee in Parliament. What the DA did was to divide the portfolio in two, realising that energy was as much as one person could humanly take. So that’s been given to a colleague of mine, which is why I’m probably relatively more relaxed than I would otherwise be if Eskom was my problem. My problem, however, is when stuff is in the ground – all the mineral resources, and oil and gas that’s in the ground.
At the end of April this year, I wrote an article about the largely unreported goings-on in the oil and gas industries in South Africa and its neighbours. It’s an extraordinary story, which, as I’ve said, has not received the media attention that it should have. I’m going to start by recapping what I said there. The main takeaway from the story was that South Africa has a significant oil and gas industry under development. There is huge potential. And if we play our cards right – and by we, I’m largely talking about the government – we could have a resource find on our hands that will echo the great resources finds in the past, like the Kimberley Diamonds field, the Witwatersrand Goldfields, the Witbank coalfields, and the Bushveld Igneous complex. That’s an optimistic, even wildly optimistic take. But then I do rub shoulders with miners, and miners are always optimists. But I think if you listen to this, you may agree with me.
So the first piece of evidence is provided by the offshore discoveries on the Namibian coast, the southern Namibian territorial waters just kilometres away from South African territorial waters, and part of the same Orange Basin geological feature. Just over a year ago, both TOTAL and Shell, what are called super majors, the biggest of the oil companies with the most sophisticated offshore drilling capabilities, have sunk multiple successful oil and gas wells. Total has two rigs drilling its first well. The Venus has been appraised by a well drilled 13 kilometres from the first but in the same field and, according to a source, has lived up to its considerable expectations. That shows the field isn’t small. It is producing at the same rate that the second wave is producing at the same rate as the first field. CEO Patrick Pouyanne says Namibia is a priority for the company. He says the appraisal drilling on the Venus find was very positive. He said, “I can tell you the oil column is very big.” The company aims to start flow testing offshore Namibia this month and in September; at the end of September, we’re expecting a comprehensive update from Total. Probably Shell will give one at the same time about exactly how much they reckon they’ve found.
