South Africa's offshore open for business

Eager to emulate its neighbours' success, the country is striving to reinvigorate interest in its deepwater potential

Efforts to get large-scale offshore exploration moving in South Africa have largely proved fruitless in recent years, but fresh interest has emerged, albeit against the background of an uncertain regulatory environment. Encouragement has come from Statoil's decision to beef up its existing position in the country—having entered its upstream in 2015. In September, the Norwegian firm announced it was farming in to ExxonMobil's deepwater acreage, acquiring a 35% interest in Exploration Right 12/3/252 Transkei-Algoa, off South Africa's southeast coast. ExxonMobil, with a 40% stake, remains operator, while Impact Africa holds 25%. The licence covers some 45,000 sq km in water depths up to 3,000 m