The company, a South African start-up that listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), acquired the IGP in December 2012 as a part of its strategy to develop Southern African gas resources where limited domestic gas supply and growing energy needs have created significant opportunity for the development of large-scale energy projects.
And to meet the criteria that the DoE will expect from its suppliers, Sunbird has "Africanised" itself with the help of Musa Capital.
The latter is run by two Americans,William Jimerson and Antoine Johnson. It was embroiled in a dispute a few years back, when the Bakubung community in the platinum-rich Pilanesberg area demanded back the money Musa was managing on their behalf from the sale of community's shares in the Bakubung mine.
Executive chairman of Sunbird Energy, Kerwin Rana, said that restructuring the company was central to its vision of being African-led, while operating commercially and sustainably.
“We are looking at this project as being of strategic and national importance to South Africa, and we want local investors to be part of the development. The new, “Africanised” IGP is now over 50% black-owned with 24% still being owned by PetroSA,” he said.
IGP is currently developing several market off-take opportunities, including providing fuel that could substitute diesel with gas at Eskom’s Ankerlig Power Station situated in the Western Cape. In addition, the project is ready for the development of new gas-fired independent power producers (IPPs) along with other value-adding industrial applications.
With a potential off-take agreement with Eskom, as well as other local and international markets being pursued, Sunbird is poised to become one of South Africa’s leading gas development companies as it seeks to develop its gas assets for market availability by 2020.
“Job creation, skills development and sharing forums are an integral part of the deal, which the team is proud to be part of,” Musa CEO, Jimerson added.
In addition to the direct and indirect jobs that could potentially be created, the investment in the development of the IGP, which could top over R20-bn, would be a true upstream and downstream industry creation catalyst throughout its lifespan.
The field was initially discovered by PetroSA (the South African national oil company) predecessor, Soekor, in the mid-1980s, and has since enjoyed the benefit of over R1,6bn of investment in exploration, appraisal and development.
Classified as a mature natural gas field development with 11 wells drilled thus far consisting of seven gas discoveries, which is an encouragingly high success rate. Having over half a trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves at a 2P level and situated 80km off of the Northern Cape coast, the current IGP gas reserves could potentially provide electricity to a city of 1m people for about 10 years, making it a significant source of clean energy in the country. With added investment, up to eight Tcf or 16 times the current proven reserves, could be added to the domestic energy mix.
