The North Westprovince has oil and gas potential that is being explored by the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA), Minister of Energy Dipuo Peters revealed in her keynote address delivered at the economic infrastructure colloquium that commenced at Sun City on Monday.
Minister Peters said that the North West Province is well positioned to be a nuclear skills development hub especially in view of the role that the North West University is already playing by producing the world sought after nuclear professionals.
The Minister called on the provincial government to continue to support the university in its rare skills development endeavour.
Peters also identified the province’s competitive advantage to lead in biogas as cow dung provides another potential energy source.
“We also believe that we need to work together with communities on programmes like Working for Energy, where with the support of the South African National Energy Development Institute we can exploit the Biogas potential due to the fact that North West is the cattle ranch of South Africa,” she stressed.
The two-day colloquium themed "Growth and Development Colloquim: Strategies to unlock the economic potential of the North West Province" to focus on strategic development priorities of water, energy, economic infrastructure and roads identified by Premier Thandi Modise is aimed at:
- Establishing an understanding of the significance of infrastructure development to growth and development in the province.
- Exploring infrastructure development to accelerate job creation.
- Laying the foundation for the development of the provincial long term plan that is aligned to the National Development Plan.
- Interacting with other role players in infrastructure development.
The colloquium which has attracted public sector and public sector from across all spheres of government and the private sector ends on Tuesday.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 388 3705
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 086 620 4802
E-mail: LKgwele@gmail.com
