With renewed interest in upstream oil and gas investment in Africa, South Africa needs an unambiguous and fiscally and financially attractive policy and operating environment, says industry body Offshore Petroleum Association South Africa national spokesperson Niall Kramer.

Moreover, a more streamlined and aligned departmental approach is needed to improve coordination across the number of authorisations and permits required to explore and develop petroleum resources.

“. . . government had previously indicated that a ‘one-stop shop’ would be established to streamline the required regulatory processes, which is a good idea and a necessary development, but it has yet to be implemented.”

Additionally, he notes, despite there being a broad depth of expertise and understanding across the resource extraction sector, South Africa does not have an upstream oil and gas sector operating at scale.

“Conceptually, there is an opportunity to further strengthen knowledge, skills and infrastructure capacity within the country’s administrative departments, municipalities, national government and several associated industries. Over the past 20 years, the economies, the technologies, equipment and materials have changed drastically, with an increased emphasis on technical, digital and intellectual skills sets.”

He cites, for example, that while an operator working on an offshore rig should have digital and technical skills, a good science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) foundation is crucial to their development.

The challenge, according to Kramer, is that developing these skills takes time.

This creates a significant gap for education and training. For example, explorers operating a rig – typically a drill ship operating about 200 km offshore – have crews who are recognised and certified by international institutions, and since every rig is unique, these crews also have rig-specific know-how.

Additionally, exploration rigs are typically only in place for about a month to six weeks before moving to another location, so any training programmes implemented by local authorities must meet short- and long-term needs.

Consequently, the sector is already contributing to longer-term skills development through initiatives such as the Upstream Training Trust (UTT).

Further, the UTT invests in developing South Africa’s scientific and engineering capacity, with a focus on historically disadvantaged individuals.

Production Creates Opportunities

“The bigger opportunity for skills development is related to actual production. Beyond the technical and digital understanding required, one thing that will be needed is a much more serious approach to safety,” Kramer states.

He suggests that the general approach to specialised safety standards in South Africa is lacking on an everyday basis, which would have to be embedded through training, adding that a variety of certifying authorities and qualified people can offer this training.

Further, certification through accredited bodies would be important, with safety being one of the underpinning performance indicators. Therefore, industry preparation is not only about ensuring that participants have the requisite technical, STEM and job-specific skills but also, as South Africa’s upstream capability develops, fostering the underlying attitudes and cultural predispositions needed to uphold specialised safety standards and to put safety first.

“More fora are needed where people can interact to improve not only consultation and information sharing but also . . . general knowledge about what the industry is and what it can provide,” Kramer argues.

As such, a broad public education programme that involves industry and government officials would be largely beneficial, he notes.

Such a programme should be supported by defining and clarifying best practice regarding consultation to foster an understanding of legitimate community concerns, project timelines and interests, as well as clarity on what is feasible for the industry.

“We need to find better ways of not having asymmetrical discussions . . . people are very aware that consultation is an important part here, but consultation and broad public education are two different things. It would be a good thing to do a lot more actual education, as the successful development of South Africa’s upstream oil and gas sector could be the next big catalyst for the South African economy,” Kramer concludes.