Helium and methane miner Renergen yesterday announced the successful completion of due diligence by the Central Energy Fund (CEF) on its deal to invest R1 billion for a 10 percent ownership stake in the Virginia Gas Project.
Renergen said this was a major step forward in finalising the agreement between Renergen and CEF. Both parties were now engaging with their respective stakeholders to obtain final approvals to complete the transaction, which was announced on the March 28, following successful completion of the due diligence,
Stefano Marani, the CEO of Renergen, said, “The successful conclusion of the due diligence signifies strategic nature of the Virginia Gas project and further marks another significant step forward in closing out the capital required for Phase Two operations at Virginia.
“We look forward to working with the CEF who also brings with it a wealth of experience in upstream oil and gas exploration, midstream natural gas to liquids processing and lastly large scale pipeline operations and maintenance experience. This will all assist in bringing a new and critical source of energy online, at a time where South Africa is suffering a significant energy crisis.”
Commenting on the commissioning progress of Virginia ahead of commencement of Phase One operations, Marani said turning the plant on for Phase One operations was a function of co-ordinating all the sites to turn on simultaneously and the relevant teams were making sure that all aspects of the operation would run according to design.
He said: “The delay faced thus far in terms of commissioning is immaterial when considering we are commissioning a world-class plant that will be in operation for the next 20 years. We have no intention of rushing the process at this late stage and introducing risk. Since commencing construction at Virginia prior to Covid, the total delays experienced in the context of several global macro events of the past two years could have been significantly worse had we not implemented several mitigations to reduce the overall impact on the project.
“We are very proud of the way our team embraces challenges and simply focuses on finding solutions. The entire Renergen team is really excited at the prospect of the first liquid being produced by the plant in due course and seeing us move from a developer to a producer.”
BUSINESS REPORT