RENERGEN JUBILANT OVER HAVING REACHED ANOTHER VIRGINIA GAS MILESTONE

RENERGEN’S chief executive Stefano Marani was jubilant yesterday as the upand-coming helium and methane mining company announced the commencement of hot commissioning of Phase 1 of the Virginia Gas Project. The Virginia gas project involves the development of gas fields across Welkom, Virginia and Theunissen in the Free State, to produce liquid helium and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the natural gas. Marani said: “The much-anticipated moment has finally arrived, and the turn-on has now commenced. Over the coming days we will continue to update shareholders as the final commissioning milestones are achieved.” Explaining the process, Renergen said: “On April 10 the generators where synchronised and a breaker to the main supply substation was opened and tests conducted. “The breaker to the two 6.6/400kV transformers were opened and will run on a low load condition, to allow the transformers to ’soak’ until operating conditions are attained. “In the following days, hot commissioning of various utility systems would commence, starting with air and nitrogen. “This would enable the flushing of some of the process plant areas to commence and was anticipated to started after the Easter weekend,” the company added. Marani congratulated Renergen’s chief operating office, Nick Mitchell, and his team for the “massive achievement”. He said this was achieved despite the many setbacks during construction such as Covid’s impact to manufacturing timelines, the shipping crisis on logistics, unseasonal rainfall due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern delaying construction among others. “Now we have a clear path to turn the plant on, and will keep shareholders updated on progress over the coming weeks to first production,” said Marani. Yesterday the share was largely flat, up 0.02 percent to R41.31, but gaining 411.77 percent over three years.

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