Authors: Peter Leon, Paul Morton, Amanda Hattingh and Ernst Muller Introduction Key points arising from the bill Conclusion INTRODUCTION A year ago, on 27 February 2019, Total S.A. announced a major discovery of gas condensate in the Outeniqua Basin (Brulpadda prospect, Block 11B/12B) offshore South Africa. This deposit reportedly contains around one billion barrels of … Read more
Patrick Leyden, a director in Herbert Smith Freehills’ Johannesburg office, is the winner of Lexology’s 2020 Client Choice Award for Energy & Natural Resources in South Africa. Patrick, a corporate lawyer, practises across a number of industry sectors but specialises in mining and energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. His experience includes domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, … Read more
Author: Peter Leon Regulatory scheme remains modelled on mining principles Much anticipation awaited the release of the draft Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill on Christmas Eve after a one-year gestation by the department of mineral resources & energy. The long-awaited bill is intended to create a new regulatory framework for the exploration and extraction of … Read more
Authors: Peter Leon, Patrick Leyden, Ernst Muller and Amanda Hattingh Last week StatsSA (South Africa’s official statistics authority) announced that South Africa’s economy contracted by 0.6 per cent during Q3. It is likely to contract further in Q4 as a further round of electricity blackouts occurs as a result of Eskom load shedding. The economy’s … Read more
Authors: Silke Goldberg, Ben Rubinstein and Dr Matthew Burnell In a 2019 global survey, 1,250 CEOs rated environmental / climate change risk the single biggest threat to business growth.1 DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE The race is on for businesses to understand their environmental impact and to manage the legal risks to succeed in a lower-carbon future. … Read more
Author: Dr MATTHEW BURNELL We were told that the carbon tax would come into effect from 1 June 2019. However, as the date drew nearer it seemed unlikely as the Carbon Tax Bill had not been signed by the President, the regulations needed to implement the Act were not finalised, the conflicts between the Bill … Read more
Author: Joanne Elson The 21st Africa Energy Forum (AEF) took place on the 11th to 14th June 2019 in Lisbon, Portugal. The annual AEF is the largest Africa energy gathering of the year and easily draws over a 1000 delegates from all over the globe, including many government officials, public private sector representatives, developers, dealmakers, … Read more
Authors: Peter Leon, Paul Morton and Patrick Leyden With the momentum of Total’s discovery earlier in the year and the promise of an emerging player in the oil and gas sector, 2019 may be South Africa’s best opportunity to set the legal framework for a successful and productive domestic oil and gas industry. On 7 … Read more
Author: Stéphane Brabant The hereunder presentation is adapted from a speech given during a seminar on ‘Mining and Oil and Gas Law: Transactions and Dispute Resolution’, jointly organised by the International Association of Lawyers and the Senegalese Bar Association in February 2017. A few years ago, it was still unrealistic to raise the topic of … Read more
