Mahlako Gas Energy (MGE) has announced its strategic investment in Tetra4, holder of South Africa's first onshore petroleum production licence.

The gas asset investment company has taken up a 5,5% equity stake in Tetra4, providing an injection of R550 million into the company and its subsidiaries. Funds will contribute to the further development of the Virginia Gas Project. Renergen’s Virginia Gas Project, which Tetra4 operates, places South Africa among the elite eight nations producing liquid helium.

The Virginia Gas Project is based in the Free State and currently focuses on the exploration and production of natural gas from deep within the Witwatersrand Supergroup: a continuing, biogenic renewable resource. According to Renergen, this natural gas has “one of the richest helium concentrations recorded globally”.

"This investment aligns strongly with the draft Integrated Resource Plan (2023), which sees a doubling of the allocation to dispatchable gas to power, which will allow for the introduction of a greater amount of intermittent renewable energy capacity to the network while reducing the overall carbon intensity of the power generation sector,” MGE said in a statement.

The production of liquid helium from the project is “imminent”, says Renergen, and will cater to the global market, particularly the US, with its daily consumption of roughly 35 000 kg.