Renergen’s liquid natural gas and helium production site in Virgnia, Free State. Photo: SUPPLIED.
Renergen, owner of South Africa’s first onshore helium and liquid natural gas (LNG) production facility in Virginia in the Free State, saw its share price shoot up more than 28% yesterday morning after it announced its liquid helium production line was fully operational.
“We can now declare South Africa one of a select few countries worldwide to produce liquid helium for the global market,” CEO Stefano Marani said in a statement.
Renergen’s share price shot up 28.1% to R11.03 on the JSE yesterday morning after the initial release of the production announcement on Friday in Australia, as local markets were closed on the day. On the Australian stock exchange, the share price went up over 28% to Aus$0.99 per share by late Friday afternoon.
Renergen has been a favoured stock among many retail investors, but the company has also faced criticism from some of its investors who had railed against the delays in reaching production, and who questioned whether the company was ever going to be financially viable.
The production milestone generated some commentary on the X social media platform: Smalltalkdaily Research (@smalltalkdaily) said: “The news, long long delayed that has led to much angst, rancor, accusations and from some patience…”
Jason du Preez (@JasonduPreez13) noted on X about the rising share price: “Our local market reacting to the helium news. It’s been a ride this one. If you’re not in it for the long haul, why are you investing then?”
The Finance Ghost (@FinanceGhost) commented on X: “Well, there’s finally a plaster on the bleeding. But if you held Renergen a year ago, you’ve still had a pretty awful time of things.”
The company said in a JSE notice that the liquid helium (LHe) inventory was being accumulated for sale to the group’s customers, whose container was scheduled to arrive later this month for filling.
Renergen had taken over complete operational control of the phase 1 plant from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), who has since departed South Africa.
The plant has been producing liquid helium since July 19, 2024 with the initial output used to cool the vacuum-jacketed pipelines and the inline helium storage tank to about 4.5 kelvin, which is necessary to ensure that helium from the helium separator remains liquid once sent to storage.
The company said their optimisation efforts during the commissioning phase had yielded impressive results.
This was indicated by the big reduction in timelines for the plant start-up and cool-down processes.
For context, the initial start-up and cool-down of the integrated LNG/LHe plant took over 65 days, while the most recent cool-down was done in just nine days.
On July 26, a helium specialist from the US had been on site with the project, providing guidance about plant performance optimisation, fine tuning, production operation, and control methodologies.
“His experience with several cryogenic helium plants has helped our team greatly shorten what is typically accepted as an iterative process to optimal performance. We intend to extend his service beyond this phase into ongoing support, and will also encompass LHe elements of our Phase 2 project,” the group said in a statement.
“Despite the challenges encountered in reaching this milestone, we are thrilled to have achieved this significant development and to commence LHe sales to our customers. Our team has unequivocally demonstrated its capability to manage and operate this facility effectively in the face of challenges and under extreme pressure,” Marani said.
BUSINESS REPORT