During the 9th BRICS Summit in China, Rosgeo and South Africa’s PetroSA agreed to work together on shelf projects, the Russian geological company announced on September 4, 2017.

In particular, the contract provides for exploration and development of blocks 9 and 11A of the southern continental shelf off the coast of South Africa. The agreement envisions a considerable exploratory phase. Three-dimensional seismic prospecting will cover more than 4,000 square kilometers, while gravity-magnetic prospecting will span over 13,000 kilometers. Rosgeo will also drill exploratory wells. The estimated volume of investment is about USD400 million.

Reserves in the region have been estimated at over 50 million tons of oil and over 400 billion cubic meters (14 tcf) of gas. Expected gas resources can reach as much as 1.2 trillion cubic meters (42.3 tcf).

Possible production volumes at the site have been estimated at four to three million cubic meters of gas per day. The gas will be delivered to the Mossel Bay gas-to-liquid processing plant.

Getting the agreement in place between the Russian and the South African company took a long time. Initially, Russia’s Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Sergey Donskoy discussed Rosgeo’s involvement as a contractor in South Africa with the country’s Energy Minister Dikobe Ben Martins in 2013. Later, in March 2015, Rosgeo and PetroSA signed a memorandum of cooperation.

South Africa launched oil production in 2003 with commercial operations at the Sable field located 95 kilometers off the coast southwest of Mossel Bay.

While South Africa was thought not to have any oil and gas before, the country now relies on its own resources to satisfy 29 percent of its oil consumption and two percent of its gas use.

The Sable field is jointly operated by PetroSA that has a 60-percent stake in the project and the U.S.-based Pioneer Natural Resources that owns a 40-percent stake.

According to expert estimates, South Africa’s shelf contains about nine billion barrels of oil.

Reserves of natural gas make up 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent.