South Africa Developing Petroleum Bill

Image: Voice of the Cape

South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy is in the process of working on a new oil and gas policy that will govern the development of oil and gas resources in the country. 

This news comes as a form of reassurance for potential investors who had concerns over regulatory and policy uncertainty in the country’s petroleum sector.

“We need to speedily work to entrench regulatory policy certainty. The Department [of Mineral Resources and Energy] has begun with the process of developing a Petroleum Resources Development Bill,” South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, said in Parliament on Tuesday. 

Not expanding on the details of the new policy or when the draft would be presented to Parliament, the Minister said the bill would “provide regulatory certainty to the upstream petroleum industry and stimulate growth and development of this sector.”

Although South Africa’s oil and gas resources are underdeveloped, the country is a growing competitor in the sector and is positioning itself as a key player in the region, particularly since French oil super major, Total, announced the first significant deep-water gas condensate discovery off the southern coast of the country.