South Africa offers exploratory potential in variety of basins

While the future suspension of the oil embargo against South Africa will no doubt help revitalize the region's most powerful economy, a move away from dependence on coal as the major local energy source is also likely. This could be accomplished through regional cooperation and development were it not for the ongoing conflict in Angola, the only producer of oil and gas in the Southern African Development Community. Even with world oil prices in the doldrums, massive foreign exchange savings would result from a domestic source, and in line with world trends the possibility of harnessing the gas resources of the region is increasingly seen as a possibility. For the present, those resources remain to be defined. But ENH of Mozambique is pursuing an appraisal program for Pande field with World Bank funding, while Shell and its partners are considering possibilities of Kudu field in Namiba. And while South Africa's own national oil company, Soekor, has had limited success with its search for oil during the apartheid years, offshore F-A gas field is in production, and the potential for hydrocarbons-gas in particular--requires a great deal more investigation. The colleagues have prepared a series of articles on basins off South Africa.more » These articles were prepared in anticipation of the completion of political reform and of the start of a licensing round, possibly during 1994. This article draws together summaries of aspects thought to be most pertinent to petroleum exploration.« less