Energy

Having had an established presence in the country since 1968, Total Namibia first opened its doors in 1977. Today the subsidiary of the continent’s leading petroleum marketer has a total of 28 service stations across Namibia, 77 commercial sites, five sites located within its national parks and four depots, which are found in Windhoek, Otavi, Gobabis and Walvis Bay.

Petrojam is a limited company jointly owned by PDVCaribe, a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) which owns 40 percent of its shares, and the Petroleum Company of Jamaica (PCJ). Petrojam was established in 1982 when the Government of Jamaica purchased the Kingston Refinery from Esso, which had built and operated it since 1964. Put simply, Petrojam's job is to supply refined products to the people and businesses of Jamaica.

Until as recently as 2010 it appeared that all southern African countries had to offer in terms of oil and gas were scattered pockets of natural gas off the coasts of South Africa and Mozambique. The event that changed this perception was the discovery of a potential 500 trillion cubic feet of gas across South Africa and Mozambique, in addition to an estimated eleven billion barrels of oil in Namibia.

Oil firm TransCanada has announced that the $11.6 billion Energy East line will carry up to 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, replacing oil imported to eastern Canada with a leftover surplus to export across the Atlantic. The Energy East pipeline would run from Hardisty, Alberta, to a new deep-water marine terminal in St John, New Brunswick.

Even since a group of families went about setting up a new dredging business in 1910, Royal Boskalis Westminster NV has built itself a commanding reputation for being a leading global maritime services company operating in the fields of dredging, inland infrastructure, towage, salvage and offshore energy.

Welcoming delegates to the 2013 Energy conference in Port of Spain in January, the Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs Kevin Ramnarine set out his vision for NGC to be the vehicle for growth through which the country can expand its footprint at home and abroad. NGC should be encouraged, he said, to become to Trinidad & Tobago what Statoil is to Norway or Petrobras to Brazil.

In 2012 the US introduced an anti dumping levy on Chinese solar imports to protect its manufacturers: now the same manufacturers are worrying that they will be excluded from the exploding Indian market if India brings in similar measures to protect its indigenous industry.

Petrotrin: The Business

The plans involve various tax breaks, including a proposal to cut the tax on some of the income generated from producing shale gas from 62 percent to 30 percent. The government claims that this would make the UK the most generous regime for shale gas in the world.

It's not all about cubic feet and billions of dollars for Mthozami Xiphu, Executive Director of SAOGA since he took over leadership of the organisation from Warwick Blyth in February this year. Xiphu is a man who feels passionately that developing the oil and gas resources, onshore and offshore could radically change the dynamics of South African society.