Southern Africa does not lack energy opportunities.
Natural gas resources are being developed across the region. Mozambique is home to major LNG developments. Namibia continues to attract international energy investment. South Africa has also demonstrated domestic potential across natural gas, LNG and helium.
Yet discovering a resource and creating a functioning energy market are two very different things.
For developers across the gas value chain, discovery is often only the beginning of a much larger challenge.
Gas must be processed. Stored. Transported. Regasified or compressed where necessary. Distributed. Contracted. Financed. And ultimately delivered reliably and economically to the industries that need it.
The resource may be beneath our feet. The real challenge is building what comes next.
South Africa’s Gas Question Is No Longer Theoretical
South Africa already has an established industrial gas economy.
Sasol indicates that approximately 160 PJ of natural gas annually has been received from Mozambique through its existing system, including approximately 40 PJ distributed to industrial gas users. But the company has also made clear that its traditional southern Mozambique supply is declining. Its current strategy envisages methane-rich gas providing a bridge from 2028 to 2030, followed by LNG as a longer-term supply solution.
The question facing South Africa is therefore not simply whether there is a future market for gas. It is how that market will be supplied and, increasingly, how quickly the necessary infrastructure can be put in place.
Finding Gas Is One Challenge. Commercialising It Is Another.
South Africa’s own emerging gas projects demonstrate both the opportunity and the complexity.
The Virginia Gas Project, for example, produced 4,885 tonnes of LNG during FY2025 and made its first liquid-helium delivery in March 2025.
But moving from small-scale production to significantly larger commercial supply requires substantial infrastructure and capital.
Published project material illustrates this progression clearly: from an approximately R25 million CNG pilot project, to an approximately US$60 million first LNG and helium phase, with a much larger second phase previously estimated at around US$1.2 billion.
This is one project, not the entire market. But it demonstrates an important industry reality.
Resources do not commercialise themselves.
Between the well and the customer sits an entire chain of infrastructure, logistics, technology, regulation, finance and market development.
A Region Rich in Resources Still Needs Connections
Southern Africa’s opportunity becomes even clearer when viewed regionally.
Mozambique LNG alone is designed around two liquefaction trains with total capacity of 13.1 million tonnes per annum. In January 2026, TotalEnergies announced the full restart of activities on the project.
South Africa, meanwhile, has significant industrial demand and established gas users.
The opportunity is therefore not simply to identify additional resources. It is to build the infrastructure and commercial networks capable of connecting regional supply, international supply and domestic resources with local demand. That includes ports, import terminals, storage, road and pipeline distribution, virtual pipelines, regasification and downstream customer infrastructure.
Energy Security Depends on Having Options
Recent global events have made the importance of diversified energy supply difficult to ignore.
The Strait of Hormuz normally carries approximately 19% of global LNG trade. During the 2026 disruption, LNG loadings from Qatar and the UAE fell sharply, while increased production from other regions — including Africa — helped offset part of the resulting global supply shortfall.
For South Africa, this reinforces a broader lesson. Energy security cannot depend entirely on one field, one pipeline, one country or one supply route. Nor does localisation necessarily mean producing every molecule domestically.
It means developing the local infrastructure, technical capability, storage, logistics and commercial flexibility required to access multiple sources and deliver energy where it is needed. That is how resource potential becomes resilience.
From International Expertise to Local Capability
Afrojoule Energy Holdings acquired a 30.5% interest in LNG Hub, while Naturelgaz acquired 60% of Afrojoule, making the Türkiye-based company an indirect shareholder in LNG Hub.
Naturelgaz brings an operating model that is particularly relevant to the challenge South Africa faces. Its experience includes industrial CNG and LNG, city gas, Auto CNG and wellhead CNG, together with transportable gas and virtual-pipeline systems.
Its operating model demonstrates how virtual pipelines can extend natural gas supply to areas without fixed pipeline access, providing a flexible downstream distribution option as markets and demand develop.
The strategic relationship extends beyond investment. It connects LNG Hub with tested downstream experience in moving gas from supply to customer.
For LNG Hub, “What Comes Next?” Is Already Taking Shape
LNG Hub’s EA-approved Import Regasification Distribution Depot (IRDD) Facility in Richards Bay sits within this broader energy landscape. The facility represents infrastructure designed to connect LNG supply with South African industry, but the next phase of the story is about what that infrastructure can enable. An import and distribution platform is designed to facilitate access to international LNG, while downstream and virtual-pipeline capabilities provide pathways to move gas beyond the terminal and closer to the industrial customers that need it.
Combined with stronger shareholder, technical and international relationships, LNG Hub is moving beyond the development of a single infrastructure project towards building capability across a broader gas value chain. This is particularly important because South Africa’s future gas requirements are unlikely to be met by one source alone. Domestic production, regional gas, imported LNG, CNG and virtual-pipeline solutions can all form part of the picture. What ultimately connects these different sources and solutions is the infrastructure required to bring energy to market.
Connecting the Opportunity
Southern Africa has resources, South Africa has industrial demand, international LNG markets offer additional supply, and domestic projects continue to demonstrate what may be possible locally. The next challenge is connecting these elements through the capital, infrastructure, regulation, technology, logistics and partnerships required to move energy reliably from source to market.
For LNG Hub, this is where the opportunity increasingly lies: helping build the infrastructure and downstream capability that can connect multiple sources of gas with the industries that need them. The question is therefore no longer simply where will the gas come from? It is how we create the connections that turn available resources into accessible, reliable energy.
