VZCZCXRO5327
RR RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHJO #0337/01 2511544
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081544Z SEP 06
FM AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5276
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUCNSAD/SADC COLLECTIVE
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 1932

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 JOHANNESBURG 000337 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS USAID, USGS 
USDOC FOR 4510/ITA/MAC/AME/OA/DIEMOND 
DOE FOR THOMAS SPERL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EMIN ENRG ECON SF
SUBJECT: THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAL INDUSTRY: PART II -- COAL IN SOUTH 
AFRICA 
 
REF: JOHANNESBURG 335 
 
JOHANNESBU 00000337  001.2 OF 006 
 
 
¶1. (U) Introduction:  This is the second of a four-part cable 
dealing with coal and the important role coal plays in the South 
African economy.  Part 2 provides an in-depth look at the South 
African coal industry, from coalfields to production, uses and 
exports.  It also looks at the infrastructure available and the 
legislation governing the industry, including the requirements 
of black economic empowerment legislation.   Reftel contains a 
summary for all four parts.  End Introduction. 
 
The South Africa Energy Scene 
----------------------------- 
¶2. (U) South Africa's primary energy mix is 68% coal, 18% oil, 
9% biomass, 3% gas, 1% hydro and 1% nuclear.  The 18% oil 
component includes 4% synfuels derived from coal conversion and 
is made up of 65% imported crude and 35% locally produced oil. 
South Africa's daily oil production is about 35,000 barrels of 
crude from three small off-shore oil fields; 155,000 barrels of 
crude equivalent from Sasol's two coal-to-liquid (CTL) plants; 
and 45,000 barrels of crude equivalent from State-owned 
PetroSA's gas-to-liquid (GTL) plant.  South Africa imports some 
430,000 barrels per day crude at an annual cost of about $10 
billion.  In 2005, domestic oil production saved the country 
nearly $4.7 billion in foreign exchange. 
 
¶3. (U) Sasol's CTL process consumes about 43 million tons of 
coal per year, produced mainly from its own four mines, plus 
purchases from other collieries as required.  PetroSA derives 
natural gas for its GTL plant from small gasfields off the south 
Cape coast.  These are expected to reach end of life by about 
¶2012.  A major search is underway to replace this supply either 
by discovering more gas, importing liquid natural gas (LNG), or 
relocating the plant to the west coast where two offshore gas 
fields may be producing by 2012.  The Sasol and PetroSA coal and 
gas conversion plants are the largest of their kind in the 
world. 
 
¶4. (U) Eskom generates 95% of South Africa's electricity and the 
remaining 5% is generated by municipalities.  During 2005, 92% 
of Eskom's output of 273,000 GWh was from 10 coal-fired plants 
with a net maximum capacity of 32,680 MW. 
(Note: A MW equals 1 million watts of electricity and a GW 
equals 1 billion watts.  Gigawatt-hours (GWh) are obtained by 
multiplying the generating capacity (MW) by the operating hours. 
 For example, if the average capacity of a generating plant is 
10 MW and it operates continuously for a year or 8760 hours, it 
will deliver a total of 87,600 MWh or 87.6 GWh.  End Note.) 
 
¶5. (U) Three others coal-fired plants with a total capacity of 
3,540 MW will be returned to production by 2008.  Apart from 
these base-load stations Eskom also operates a 1,800 MW 
pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear station at Koeberg in 
the Western Cape.  Peaking and emergency supply is provided by 
two pump-storage stations totaling 1,400 MW and located in the 
Western Cape and KwaZulu/Natal, two gas turbine stations 
totaling 342 MW are in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces, 
and six small hydroelectric stations totaling 660 MW are located 
in various parts of the country. 
 
¶6. (U) Over the past decade, mainly due to the SAG's now defunct 
energy privatization program, there has been an under-investment 
in new generation and transmission capacity.  This became 
painfully apparent early in 2006 when an accident to Koeberg's 
Unit 1 generator caused the nuclear station to go off-line.  The 
Western Cape suffered months of unplanned and (later) scheduled 
power outages due to a combination of insufficient generation 
and transmission capacity in and from Mpumalanga power plants. 
The SAG has allocated some $15 billion to be spent over the next 
five years to boost the whole electricity system.  This includes 
expanding generation capacity by some 8,000 MW - 6,000 MW from 
refurbished and new coal-fired plants and 2,000 MW from 
gas/diesel-fired open cycle turbine plants.  Nevertheless, 
reserve generating capacity is likely to remain below 10% of 
usable capacity for the foreseeable future, less than the 
industry-recommended reserve of 15%. 
 
South African Coal Industry 
--------------------------- 
¶7. (U) Coal was first mined in the early 1890's to provide 
domestic and industrial heat and steam (and later electricity) 
to power the country's expanding diamond and gold mines.  By 
2005, domestic coal sales amounted to 175 million tons of which 
112 million tons were supplied to Eskom for generating 
electricity, 43 million tons to Sasol for conversion to liquid 
fuels and chemical products, and 20 million tons for local use 
in the chemical, cement, metallurgical and steel industries and 
 
JOHANNESBU 00000337  002.2 OF 006 
 
 
for domestic heating and cooking.  An additional 71 million tons 
were exported, of which 77% went to Europe.  Eskom's coal-fired 
plants generated 92% of the country's electricity.  This 
represented 66% of the continent's total electricity supply and 
six to seven times Nigeria's total output with a population 
three times that of South Africa.  Sasol Synfuels produced about 
25% of the country's total fuel needs. 
 
¶8. (U) The future of South Africa's international coal trade 
depends on a number of external factors including coal, oil and 
gas prices; concerns about energy security; competition from 
other energy sources and coal producers; and the ability to 
radically reduce emissions and capture and permanently store CO2 
gas at relatively low cost.  South Africa is investigating a 
number of options and alliances to develop and implement clean 
coal technologies. 
 
¶9. (U) In 2005, five major and some 40 small coal companies 
produced 306 million tons of run-of-mine (ROM) coal from about 
64 mines - 55% from underground operations.  Over twenty of the 
smaller coal companies were created under Black Economic 
Empowerment (BEE) legislation and one is a black-owned and 
operated mine. The 245 million tons of saleable coal produced 
included 1-2 million tons of anthracite, coking and 
metallurgical coals, the rest being steam coal.  Output came 
from Anglo Coal (23%), Ingwe (BHP-Billiton) (22%), Sasol (20%), 
Eyesizwe/Kumba merger (18%), Xstrata (8%), and small and BEE 
operators (9% total). 
 
Coal Research 
------------- 
¶10. (U) For two to three decades prior to 2000, 
industry-supported research on the fundamental properties of 
coal was generally neglected.  Given the size and importance of 
the coal industry, government-supported and university research 
facilities were and still are inadequate and few coal scientists 
were or are being trained.  Major users Sasol, Kumba and Eskom 
funded research to improve quality and efficiency of usage while 
competitive research on applications was carried out in-house or 
in overseas laboratories by major producers Kumba, BHP-Billiton 
and Anglo Coal. 
 
¶11. (U) Over the past decade, growing global demand for steam 
coal, coal's increasing importance to the South African economy, 
and concerns about shrinking reserves of quality coal in 
producing coal fields, galvanized the industry into establishing 
the Coaltech Research program. The program formally commenced in 
1999 as an initiative to develop technology and apply research 
findings that would enable the South African coal industry to 
remain competitive, sustainable and safe, well into the 21st 
century.  Coaltech was established as a joint venture and 
equally funded agreement between Eskom, Anglo Coal, Ingwe Coal, 
Kumba Resources, Xstrata Coal, Sasol Mining, Eyesizwe Coal, 
Total Coal, the Chamber of Mines, and the CSIR (the 
government-owned Council for Scientific and Industrial 
Research).  A conditional grant was also provided by the 
Department of Science and Technology through the Enhanced 
Technology Development Program. 
 
¶12. (U) In terms of the agreement, the program is directed by 
the Coaltech Management Team (CMT) composed of representatives 
from the above companies.  In addition the Universities of the 
Pretoria and the Witwatersrand, the Department of Minerals and 
Energy, and the National Union of Mineworkers are represented on 
the CTM by invitation.  Work done to date has extended the life 
of the Highveld and Witbank coalfields by more than five years. 
It has also resolved problems experienced with polluted water 
and fine coal discards, amongst others. 
 
South Africa's Coal Resources 
----------------------------- 
¶13. (U) South Africa has 18 principal coalfields spread over an 
area of some 700 km from north to south and 500 km from east to 
west.  The coals are generally high in ash and low in reactive 
constituents and have a low sulfur level of (generally) less 
than 1%.  Nine coalfields host operating mines that produce 
predominantly thermal coals.  The remaining fields are deep, of 
poor quality, may contain undesirable radioactive and trace 
elements, and are unlikely to be developed in the near future. 
However, some contain coking coals and Rio Tinto is currently 
evaluating the Limpopo field in the north for this potential. 
There is no commercial production of coal-bed methane (CBM) but 
Sasol and Anglo American are investigating this potential. 
 
¶14. (U) South Africa's estimated hard coal resource base exceeds 
120 billion tons of which some 31 billion tons are considered to 
 
JOHANNESBU 00000337  003.2 OF 006 
 
 
be reserves.  (Note: Reserves are that portion of a deposit or 
resource base that are economically recoverable under present 
economic and technical conditions.  End Note.)  The vast 
majority of this is steam coal, the remainder being anthracite 
and minor reserves of metallurgical and coking coal.  In 2005, 
South Africa ranked fifth in production, and sixth in total 
reserves.  However, because many countries do not comply with 
the reserve estimation standards used in South Africa, Canada 
and Australia, this ranking could change in the future. 
 
¶15. (U) The Waterberg field in the north-west, hosts one 
mega-mine that produces 17 million tons of coal annually, of 
which 14.7 million tons feeds the giant, dry-cooled, Matimba 
power plant (3,690 MW).  Matimba is the largest dry-cool plant 
in the world.  Officially the Waterberg contains 10% of South 
Africa's coal reserves but is estimated to host about 50% of the 
total resource base.  The field extends westwards into Botswana 
where plans are being formulated to produce power for export to 
South Africa.  Coal reserves by field in billions of tons are: 
 
Coalfield                      Reserves   %Total 
 
Highveld                         9.8        32 
Witbank                          9.4        31 
Ermelo                           4.4        14 
Waterberg                        3.1        10 
Vereeniging/Sasolburg            1.8         6 
South Rand                       0.7         2 
Soutspansberg                    0.3