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  • Renergen (RLT) has closed registrations for South Africa’s first Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) auction, receiving much greater interest than expected
  • The emerging natural gas and helium producer holds the only onshore petroleum production rights in the country
  • At the auction, parties will be able to bid for an allocation of the LNG to be produced at Renegen’s Virginia Gas Project
  • Renergen expects to complete the phase one expansion of the project in 2021 which will see it begin producing LNG and helium
  • Registrations for the auction closed on Friday, and once non-disclosure agreements are finalised, the parties will have until the end of October to submit their bids
  • Shares have been trading 3.4 per cent higher at $1.22 in early afternoon trade

Renergen (RLT) has closed registrations for what will be South Africa’s first Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) auction.

The emerging natural gas and helium producer will hold the auction to allocate LNG that will be produced at its Virginia Gas Project in the Free State, some 250 kilometres southwest from Johannesburg.

Renergen holds the only onshore petroleum production rights in the country and expects to complete the phase one expansion of the Virginia Gas Project in 2021, which will see it begin producing helium and LNG instead of compressed natural gas.

On Friday the company closed registrations for the auction and, according to CEO Stefano Marani, generating much greater interest than it had anticipated.

“We expected some interest but certainly not the level received, with significantly more companies involved in the auction process than we had forecasted,” Stefano told the market.

“Many companies in South Africa have their own procurement departments dealing in energy and an auction, such as this would never feature in their operational processes, however, we were pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong,” he explained further.

Non-disclosure agreements are now being finalised and, following the information sharing process, the parties will have until the end of October to submit their bids.

“We now look forward to completing the information sharing process and assessing all bids received,” Stefano concluded.

Shares have been trading 3.4 per cent higher at $1.22 at 1:40 pm AEST.

RLT by the numbers
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