South Africa is a large consumer of refined petroleum products
and 65% of the country’s fuel consumption is satisfied by imported crude oil. According
to the Department of Energy, for the month of February 2012, Saudi Arabia
delivered the most crude oil onto South African shores, at 582,000 tonnes. Iran
delivered the second highest volume, at 417,000 tonnes or 25% of SA’s total
crude oil imports during that month. Save for SASOL’s coal-to-liquids
programme, South Africa has no known crude oil reserves.
With the imminent Iranian oil sanctions imposed by the United
State of America and the European Union, South Africa needs to find crude oil
supplier alternatives to "fill" the void that will be left by Iran. Nigeria and
Angola seem to be the most logical options to replace Iran, especially given that both countries are already suppliers of crude
to SA, albeit it at very small quantities at today’s levels. Together, Nigeria
and Angola produce just over 4 million barrels of oil per day, as such, the two
countries have the capacity to meet SA’s crude requirements. However, the
concern with Nigeria and Angola is security of supply, due largely to
geopolitical instability, especially in Nigeria’s oil producing area of the
Delta Region.
US oil giant, ExxonMobil has made a big bet on fracking and
in a recent interview in Fortune Magazine, the company’s CEO, Rex Tillerson,
pointed out that ExxonMobil will pursue fracking aggressively while ensuring
that no undue harm is done to the environment. More recently, Shell South
Africa attracted attention when it announced plans to explore fracking in the Karoo
region of South Africa. SASOL is already a major investor in fracking-related
activities in North America. In my view, the South African government ought to
explore an environmentally responsible way of using fracking techniques to
exploit any available crude oil reserves, to ensure a measure of self-reliance
as this relates to South Africa's current and future fuel consumption.
Our Politicians must show willingness to create effective government!!
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