IN collaboration with the Industrial Gas Users Association of Southern Africa (IGUA-SA), Wits Business School’s African Energy Leadership Centre (AELC) is hosting a symposium on the state of natural gas supply in South Africa today, 7 May 2025.

This is in response to the looming ‘gas cliff’, which could lead to a shortage of natural gas that will severely impact the country’s energy security and industrial competitiveness. Finding solutions requires an urgent conversation among all stakeholders in the oil and gas sector.

“The state of affairs warrants all stakeholders in South Africa to proactively engage and explore economically viable options for South Africa to avoid the impending natural gas shortage while ensuring that the country delivers on its climate change commitments in line with the Paris Agreement,” says Professor David Phaho, director of the AELC.

The Symposium will be addressed by the Minister of Electricity and Energy Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. The sessions will address the challenges, opportunities, and solutions in the upstream, downstream, and midstream sectors, as well as fiscal frameworks, the policy and regulatory environment, investment opportunities, and the role of academia in future research, technology and innovation in the natural gas sector.

“The aim of the Natural Gas Symposium is to dissect the inherent challenges and opportunities across the entire natural gas value chain and ultimately to develop a new compact among all stakeholders for a well-functioning South African gas sector,” says Professor Phaho.

Jaco Human, chief executive of IGUA-SA, adds that the central objective of the symposium is to catalyse the formation of a multidisciplinary gas think tank, convening public- and private-sector leaders – especially government decision-makers – to collectively address South Africa’s gas challenges and opportunities and to deliberately integrate:

Policy and regulation – engaging government stakeholders on legislative and regulatory direction
Transactional enablers – including commercial banks, DFIs, and project developers
Academic and technical expertise – bringing evidence-based analysis and systems thinking
Industry leadership – from upstream production to midstream infrastructure and downstream users.

The line-up of speakers include representatives from the Offshore Petroleum Association of South Africa (OPASA), the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA), Transnet Pipelines, the South African Oil and Gas Alliance (SAOGA), Egoli Gas, Eskom, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), Sasol, Standard Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, the Central Energy Fund, the South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI), the Africa Energy Corp., as well as Wits Business School an