The
underdevelopment of the petroleum sector underpins our desire to establish it so that it receives undivided focus for its development and growth - that is the objective of the Bill.
Underdevelopment is a function of two things. It is either you don't have oil and gas deposits or you have not exploited them, and the latter is true in South Africa. We are beginning to bump into the deposits of gas more and less on oil. Our view is that if we want to grow that sector to its full scale so that it can be optimal, we need to separate it and dedicate resources to it and dedicate people to work on it then it will contribute to the performance of the economy. In our view petroleum is a catalyst for economic growth and development.