A Nigerian-based energy company, Riverside LNG, has revealed ongoing discussions regarding a potential agreement to supply gas to South Africa from the first quarter of 2024.
This would mark the first such deal between the two nations, showcasing potential collaboration in the energy sector.
Riverside LNG had earlier this year signed a gas-export partnership agreement with Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG of Germany and is now looking for deals on the continent, the Chief Executive Officer of the firm, David Ige, said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Nigeria has Africa’s largest gas reserves, as the country has about 206 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, making it a nation with more gas reserves than oil.
“We’d probably very early in the year close out another segment of the market, an off-take for South Africa,” said Ige, a former executive at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, now known as Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
“There’s a massively evolving gas market in the region, anything around 3,000 nautical miles of Nigeria. So that covers Southern Africa, Western Africa, all to North-West Europe and to the Caribbean and South America broadly,” Ige added.
South Africa faces chronic power outages with the country’s old and poorly maintained power stations, unable to keep up with demand.
