South Africa’s gas industry is experiencing a decline that threatens gas-to-power development and energy security. Gas producers, infrastructure developers and industry players have described this as a gas cliff that could affect industrial production, investment, employment and the country’s economic competitiveness.

They gathered for a webinar organised by the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa and the African Energy Leadership Centre at Wits Business School.

The country has over time relied on natural gas from Mozambique’s Pande and Temane fields, which have been in decline.

“If you look at the short term; number one, we’ve missed the boat. We are now officially in the gas cliff. It is not if it’s going to come, it is how we’re going to navigate that, which is going to be key. Yet the government is not engaging the private sector. We simply don’t see that. And we are absolutely at pains to understand why the government is not dealing with number one, the gas cliff, but also unlocking the gas economy. The government has a role to play. They know the answers. This is not a complex solution, but there’s absolutely very little coordination in this. So, we are suffering from … we’re trying to solve a national issue through the private sector. And that is inherently difficult,” says Executive Officer of the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa Jaco Human.

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