Exploration drilling at most of
South Africa’s on and offshore
oil and gas projects has come
to a near standstill thanks to
the drop in the price of oil.
According to Dave van
der Spuy, manager of the
Petroleum Agency SA, several
low key work programmes
are continuing but very little
drilling is
currently
taking place.
“Most of the
companies are
concentrating
on rehashing
their existing
data and
getting the
best out of it.
We have seen
one or two
companies
relinquish
their exploration rights during
the past two years but these
have been limited to a few. We
have also seen new entries and
new exploration rights being
awarded.”
He said much of South
Africa’s oil and gas remained
high risk operations and
companies were responding
by working together. “We
have seen several multiclient
survey partnerships
being formed with a lot of
reprocessing of existing data.
Several developments have
been stalled and there is
very little real activity taking
place.”
South Africa saw an
unprecedented level of
exploration during 2013 which
was ultimately interrupted by
the drop in the oil price. “We
currently have over 25000
square km of new 3D seismic
survey data
and 50 600
square km of
new 2D data
available.”
According
to Van der
Spuy, while
South Africa is
not necessarily
seen as a
typical oil
and gas
country, there
are enough
reserves around to make the
country a prime prospect for
multinationals.
“Also if one looks at our
neighbours then it is easy to
understand why there is a
strong belief in potential finds
in South Africa.”
The country is also a
good base for logistics and
other support services when
operating in neighbouring
countries such as Mozambique
which still boasts some of the
largest gas finds in the world
over the past few years.
There are enough
reserves to make SA
a prime prospect for
multinationals.
– Dave van der Spuy
