Renergen shifts focus to SA

Natural gas developer Renergen will stop funding a hydroelectric project in Ivory Coast so that it can focus on its Tetra 4 project in SA, it said on Tuesday. /Page 12

Natural-gas developer Renergen would stop funding a hydroelectric project in Ivory Coast so that it can focus on its Tetra 4 project in SA, it said on Tuesday.

A month ago, the Petroleum Agency of SA approved Tetra 4’s environmental impact assessment. This means Renergen can start building liquefiers in 2018 and produce liquefied natural gas early in 2019.

Renergen’s investment in the hydroelectric project to date was R12.5m, but it would have to invest R20m more to complete the studies. The project would need an exceptional tariff to provide an acceptable investment return and Renergen believed it would be better to deploy its money at Tetra 4.

At end-August Renergen held R4.2m cash including an environmental rehabilitation guarantee, compared with R12.4m at the end of February. It has since raised R15m from a share issue and the Industrial Development Corporation has provided a R218m loan to help fund the development and installation of a pipeline for Tetra 4 and expand the plant. Up to R125m more will be raised through a private placement of shares.

Renergen earned R1.4m from sales of compressed natural gas in the six months to August, about three times more than in the same period last year.