South Africa Proposes Buying US LNG as Seeks Trade Deal

The document, signed by Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and posted late on Sunday, said that South Africa aims to import 75-100 petajoules, roughly 75 to 100 million cubic metres, of LNG per year from the United States, the world’s biggest LNG exporter.

The minister said that would “unlock approximately $900 million to $1.2 billion in trade per annum and $9 billion – $12 billion for 10 years based on applicable price”.

The trade package was proposed by South Africa during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House on May 21, when President Donald Trump confronted him over government policies, such as land reform and Black economic empowerment, and made false claims of a “genocide” against whites.

Ramaphosa had hoped to use the meeting to reset his country’s relationship with the U.S., after Trump cancelled much-needed aid to South Africa, offered refugee status to white minority Afrikaners, expelled the country’s ambassador and criticised its genocide court case against Israel.

Ntshavheni, a senior member of the government who is also the cabinet spokesperson, was part of the government delegation that accompanied Ramaphosa to Washington.

She said South Africa would work with the U.S. to explore areas of cooperation in technologies, including fracking, to help unlock gas production in South Africa.

The proposed package also includes a duty-free quota of 40,000 vehicles per year to be exported from South Africa and duty-free access for automotive components sourced from the country for production in the United States.

A duty-free quota of 385 million kilograms for steel per year and 132 million kg of aluminium per year was also proposed, according to the document.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

The government news agency website, where the article was originally posted, was down on Monday. Its editor told Reuters that the document, seen by Reuters, was posted on Sunday and added that the website was down because of technical reasons.

Ntshavheni had posted a link to the document on her X account on Sunday. Her spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters’ queries and it was not clear if the document posted was a final version. The presidency spokesperson did not reply.

Ntshavheni said LNG imports would be augmented with U.S. investment in gas infrastructure, as Africa’s most advanced economy pivots towards natural gas and away from coal-fired power stations.

Trump, who unleashed global trade tensions by announcing tariffs on all of his trade partners last month, has made energy one of the bargaining chips.

For South Africa, which imports most of its gas via a pipeline from Mozambique, and could run out of gas within a few years as its neighbour’s supplies dwindle, U.S. LNG would fill a need.

South Africa’s Karoo region is thought to hold significant quantities of gas but a moratorium on shale gas exploration over environmental concerns has held up exploration in the area.

“(South Africa) and the U.S. will negotiate an arrangement to facilitate LNG imports from the U.S. at the appropriate price. This will not replace our current suppliers of gas but complement those supplies,” Ntshavheni said.

(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Barbara Lewis)