Looking at the options: South Africa's ENergy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica
Pretoria weighs up GTL help for Russia
South Africa is considering helping Russian state-run players Rosneft and Gazprom in making liquid fuel from natural gas or coal, the country's Mining & Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said today.
Sonjica said that PetroSA officials would hold technical talks on its gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology with the two Russian companies, which are in the early stages of exploring synthetic fuel production.
"There are plans to have such talks with officials of Rosneft and Gazprom. PetroSA will be involved in the talks, which will be on technology exchange to help them produce gas- or coal-to-liquids (CTL)," she said after a formal briefing by senior leaders from the two countries.
PetroSA runs South Africa's biggest GTL pant at Mossel Bay.
Sasol said it remained committed to increasing its GTL and CTL potential globally. Sasol declined to commment on whether it was involved in talks with the Russian companies.
Some media reports have said Rosneft officials visited Sasol's plants in South Africa.
Later this month, Sasol will shipping fuel from its 34,000 barrel-per-day Oryx GTL plant in Qatar.
Sonjica's comments were made after a press briefing, attended by Reuters, held by South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, who is visiting the region accompanied by officials from various Russian companies.