Legislative limbo: where next for SA’s upstream sector and would-be investors?
The oil and gas sector is seeing new entrants farming in, but draft bills do not address upstream issues, or haven’t even been passed yet
It has now been over two years since Total made its significant gas condensate discovery in the Brulpadda block, off Mossel Bay. The announcement led to much anticipation for the rapid development of an upstream petroleum industry in SA.
Recognising the need for a dedicated legislative framework for the oil and gas sector (which is currently governed by the long-standing, mining-focused Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002), in December 2019 the government published a draft Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill. Though the benefit of having dedicated, stand-alone legislation is undeniable, the draft bill failed to deliver on a number of fronts. Since then, no updates to the bill have been published (comments from the public were invited before February 21 2020) and the text has not been submitted to parliament...
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