SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY BILL: DRAFT GAZETTED FOR STAKEHOLDER INPUT

SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM COMPANY BILL: DRAFT GAZETTED FOR STAKEHOLDER INPUT

• 13 November 2023
• Minerals & Energy
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Mineral Resources & Energy has called for input by 13 December 2023 on a draft South African National Petroleum Company Bill. According to the Government Gazette notice announcing this, the draft Bill replaces a version published on 10 November 2023 – although it was never made available as an eGazette.

This notwithstanding, the draft Bill provides for matters relating to the establishment of a national petroleum company among other things responsible for:

• managing (on behalf of the state):
  • ‘exploration and production rights and interests acquired and exercised in terms of the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Act’, and
  • ‘interests preceding this Act or the common law’
• facilitating the provision of energy and petroleum infrastructure
• the middle and downstream supply of petroleum, petroleum products and gas
• the storage and distribution of petroleum products
• commercial aspects of upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum operations ‘including but not limited to aggregation, marketing and trading’, and
• ‘the acquisition, generation, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of any form of energy’, including renewable energy.

The Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill is still before Parliament, its ‘B’ version having been passed by the National Assembly on 26 October 2023 and referred to the NCOP for concurrence – as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

The draft Bill also provides for transferring to the proposed new company ‘human resources and assets’ now falling under:

• the South African Gas Development Company
• the Strategic Fuel Fund, and
• the Petroleum, Oil & Gas Corporation of South Africa.

Please click the links below for more information:

• draft Bill
• Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill’s ‘B’ version

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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