Speakers at the event also stressed the need for strict environmental safeguards and skills development to ensure sustainable industry growth.
Unathi Magida, Executive Head of Communications and Stakeholder Relations at the Petroleum Agency SA, told Channel Africa on Wednesday that this year’s edition, which took place on Monday and Tuesday, marked a turning point. “The conference is becoming better and bigger every day,” she said. “We saw increased interest across all stakeholder groups, communities, academia, investors, lawyers and government. Our theme, ‘oil and gas without borders’, really came alive.”
Magida said regional cooperation emerged as a central outcome. Southern African countries, all of which have oil or gas potential, emphasised the need to build shared infrastructure, coordinate regulatory frameworks and strengthen regional value chains.
SA’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum, Gwede Mantashe, delivered a keynote address reaffirming the government’s position that oil and gas remain critical to the country’s energy security and industrial development. Magida described the message as “a vote of confidence” in an emerging sector poised to support economic recovery.
Asked about environmental concerns, Magida emphasised that SA’s oil and gas sector operates under strict regulations, including the Mining and Petroleum Resources Development Act and the National Environmental Management Act. “Each application must go through a comprehensive commentary process involving the Department of Environment, specialists and affected stakeholders,” she said. “Environmental considerations are built into every stage.”
Magida acknowledged that the sector still faces pushback linked to climate‑change commitments, but said natural gas is increasingly viewed as a transition fuel capable of supporting renewables and stabilising the electricity grid. She noted growing interest in gas‑to‑power projects and highlighted the abundance of offshore and onshore gas resources in SA.
On government’s role, she pointed to the newly enacted Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Act, which provides a dedicated legislative framework tailored to the industry’s needs, including investment, job creation, skills transfer and environmental safeguards.
Concrete steps following the conference will include expanded skills‑development partnerships with universities, stronger inclusion of historically disadvantaged groups, regional benchmarking with Angola and Mozambique, and broader stakeholder education. “There is a huge knowledge gap. We must educate South Africans on what oil and gas can do for the economy and for communities,” Magida said.
She said the goal is clear: a well‑regulated, inclusive and regionally integrated oil and gas sector that supports energy security and long‑term industrial development.
–ChannelAfrica–
