The Market Online - At The Bell

Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights

  • Renergen (RLT) has closed registrations for South Africa’s first Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) auction, receiving much greater interest than expected
  • The emerging natural gas and helium producer holds the only onshore petroleum production rights in the country
  • At the auction, parties will be able to bid for an allocation of the LNG to be produced at Renegen’s Virginia Gas Project
  • Renergen expects to complete the phase one expansion of the project in 2021 which will see it begin producing LNG and helium
  • Registrations for the auction closed on Friday, and once non-disclosure agreements are finalised, the parties will have until the end of October to submit their bids
  • Shares have been trading 3.4 per cent higher at $1.22 in early afternoon trade

Renergen (RLT) has closed registrations for what will be South Africa’s first Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) auction.

The emerging natural gas and helium producer will hold the auction to allocate LNG that will be produced at its Virginia Gas Project in the Free State, some 250 kilometres southwest from Johannesburg.

Renergen holds the only onshore petroleum production rights in the country and expects to complete the phase one expansion of the Virginia Gas Project in 2021, which will see it begin producing helium and LNG instead of compressed natural gas.

On Friday the company closed registrations for the auction and, according to CEO Stefano Marani, generating much greater interest than it had anticipated.

“We expected some interest but certainly not the level received, with significantly more companies involved in the auction process than we had forecasted,” Stefano told the market.

“Many companies in South Africa have their own procurement departments dealing in energy and an auction, such as this would never feature in their operational processes, however, we were pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong,” he explained further.

Non-disclosure agreements are now being finalised and, following the information sharing process, the parties will have until the end of October to submit their bids.

“We now look forward to completing the information sharing process and assessing all bids received,” Stefano concluded.

Shares have been trading 3.4 per cent higher at $1.22 at 1:40 pm AEST.

RLT by the numbers
More From The Market Online

Carnarvon revs up for revised Dorado Development

The Dorado discovery appears on again, with Carnarvon Energy announcing the JV completing a revision of…

Tamboran steps on the gas to supply the Top End

Tamboran Resources has taken a significant step towards commercialising the gas resources of the Betaloo Sub…

Fortescue recovers from iron ore export slump with record shipments in month of March

Fortescue has delivered a mixed-bag report for the March 2024 Quarter, showing a recovery in iron…

Helios teams with NASDAQ-listed Norway firm to liquefy flare gas

The production of natural gas typically sees companies flaring methane into the atmosphere. There's growing enthusiasm…