South African state-owned oil and gas company PetroSA expects to receive the first shipment of gas from an agreement with Mozambique's Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) by the end of this year, the authorities said, quoted by the Reuters.

This effort, according to the oil company, is aimed at boosting gas supplies before a potentially serious shortage occurs.

With a gas marketing license granted by regulators in March, the South African state-owned company managed to secure an initial deal for 2 petajoules of gas per year (PJ/a), with the possibility of increasing it to 200 petajoules in the future.

According to the same publication, this would be enough to supply dozens of industrial gas users, including steelmaker ArcelorMittal, which currently relies on around 190 PJ/a, mainly supplied by South African petrochemical company Sasol.

However, Sasol has warned customers that it will significantly restrict its supply in two years' time as its Mozambican gas fields dry up.

PetroSA therefore wants to form a joint venture (JV) with ENH to attract potential gas customers in South Africa, affected by the energy crisis, and intends to replicate the JV model in Mossel Bay to market gas from the offshore fields discovered by TotalEnergies to the Cape market.

"In Mossel Bay, we will potentially look at two different JVs, one with Total for Brulpadda (field) and another JV for the development of Block 9, but the main entity that will market gas for the group is PetroSA Gas Trading," said Sesakho Magadla, chief operating officer of PetroSA, quoted by Reuters.

He explained that ENH's gas sales agreement involves importing gas through the 869 km ROMPCO pipeline linking the Pande and Temane fields to South Africa, before supplying users through Sasol's pipeline network in the north of the country.

PetroSA is currently negotiating two gas transportation agreements with Sasol and ROMPCO - the pipeline company it operates, according to a presentation made to legislators last month. ROMPCO's pipeline runs from Mozambique to Sasol's petrochemical complex in Secunda, where it operates the world's largest coal-to-liquids plant.

"Negotiations are currently underway regarding a gas transportation agreement to provide PetroSA ... with access to uncommitted capacity on the pipeline network," said Alex Anderson, a spokesman for Sasol.

The source added that technical studies are also underway to determine the feasibility of transporting PetroSA's gas to different locations around the current pipeline network.