ThePrint ·
Alarm bells from South African businesses: Country sleepwalking into a gas crisis
South Africa also has reserves of gas onshore and offshore, but ocean exploration has been held up by legal challenges and disputes with environmental groups.
South Africa’s government has resolved the country’s recurring power outages and is racing to fix its crumbling water infrastructure. But, business leaders warn, it’s sleepwalking into another crisis — a “gas cliff.”
Combined, glassmakers, tile manufacturers, food processors and other industries that rely on gas account for 8% of the economy and 700 billion rand ($43 billion) in annual economic output, and provide 75,000 jobs. Almost all of their needs are currently supplied by Sasol Ltd., the country’s biggest petrochemicals company, from its fields in central Mozambique.
Sasol warns that in two years time there will only be enough gas coming from those fields for its own needs, leaving industries holding back their investments and clamoring for the government to find solutions.