Cape Town - PetroSA, the state-owned oil and gas company, plans to invest R15 billion in projects in South Africa over the next five years.
Projects under consideration included exploring and drilling for oil in South African waters, building a new gas pipeline linking the east and west coasts and building new gas storage and loading facilities, chief executive Sipho Mkhize said in Cape Town yesterday.
Referring to outstanding funds of R12.5 million owed to PetroSA by Imvume Management, Mkhize said PetroSA would go to Imvume Management's sibling company, Imvume Resources, next Monday to attach assets.
PetroSA lent R18 million to Imvume Management so the company could buy raw material, known as feedstock condensate, for PetroSA, but the loan became controversial after Imvume Management donated R11 million of it to the ANC.
Mkhize said Imvume Management had only R22 000 worth of assets, but Imvume Resources had assets and significant cash flow.
These included a stake in a security company known as New Era and R5 million owed to it by the Eastern Cape government, as well as income from other services the company provided.
PetroSA said net profit for the year to March rose R1 billion to R2.77 billion.But most of this profit could be wiped out if an ongoing tax dispute with the SA Revenue Services (Sars) was not resolved.
Sars says it is owed as much as R2.3 billion by PetroSA. The matter is set down to go to court on November 20.
But Mkhize said: "We will see if it can be sorted out before going to court."
The company said profit was "buoyed by high international oil prices, which averaged $58 a barrel, compared with an average of $42 in the previous year". But it expected the oil price to be lower than $58 in the current financial year.
Asked if there were any plans to sell PetroSA, Mputumi Damane, the chief executive of its state-owned shareholder, the Central Energy Fund, said: "I don't expect any appetite to buy PetroSA" because of uncertainty over feedstock reserves.
PetroSA said that as part of its efforts to grow reserves, it was exploring fields in Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Mozambique and Namibia. It was also conducting development drilling off the Cape south coast near Mossel Bay, with the intention of extending the life of fields in the area to at least 2013.
PetroSA's turnover rose 17 percent to R7.5 billion.