PetroSA's South African LNG Terminal Plans

PetroSA has announced plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal off the country’s south coast that may cost as much as $510 million.

A front-end engineering design study by WorleyParsons Ltd. is expected to be finished in September. A final investment decision is due in the fourth quarter of next year, and the project will be handed over by contractors to PetroSA by the first three months of 2018.

“LNG is an enabler for any offshore or onshore finds” that may be discovered,’’ Thabo Kgogo, the company’s vice president of operations, said in an interview. “We will be looking to bring in strategic partners to do this with us.”

The initial supply needed would be 1.2 million metric tons of LNG a year, Carlo Matthysen, PetroSA’s LNG project manager, told reporters. The company will issue a gas-supply tender in August or September, and Angola LNG, the $10 billion southern African plant who’s biggest shareholder is Chevron Corp., has shown interest in supplying the terminal, he said.

“It is a great time to sign LNG contracts for a start date within the 2017-20 period,” Charles Blanchard, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said by e-mail. The market is tight because of “massive