Total Energies to quit South Africa offshore gas fields

French Total Energies said it plans to quit South Africa’s offshore gas fields to focus on more promising discoveries in Namibia, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.

The company plans to give up its license for Block 11B/12B because it doubts whether the complex deep-water finds can be made commercially viable, given South Africa’s small gas market, according to Bloomberg.

An exit by the French company would be a blow to South Africa, which lacks domestic sources of oil and gas, and could trigger QatarEnergy’s departure, joining Canadian Natural Resources.

TotalEnergies partnered with QatarEnergy in March to buy a stake in a license seeking oil and gas on the west coast of South Africa as part of plans to develop the Orange Basin in Namibia.

South Africa was pinning hope on the gas finds to help alleviate an acute energy crisis, which is manifested in recurrent power outages.