AfrOil: South Africa expects TotalEnergies to submit Luiperd development plan

Phindile Masangane, the CEO of Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA), has said she does not expect TotalEnergies to let its licence for Block 11B/12B, an offshore site that includes the Luiperd natural gas and condensate fields, lapse as a deadline for submitting production plans approaches.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Masangane stated that she was “very confident” that the French major would finish discussions with PetroSA, its government-owned partner, and submit a production plan for Luiperd in time to prevent its licence for the block from expiring on September 6. She did not comment on the progress of talks between the two companies.

She did note, however, that negotiations on offshore oil and gas projects had become more complicated as a result of the complaints made and lawsuits filed by community and environmental activists. “As the Petroleum Agency, we acknowledge that South Africa’s upstream oil and gas industry has become litigious,” she stated.