Deputy Mineral Resources Minister Godfrey Oliphant on Wednesday questioned whether there was enough coal to meet the demand of Eskom's build programme.

"Eskom's build programme will result in an increase in coal consumption to approximately 160-million tons per annum in 2020 - will there be enough coal to meet this increasing demand?" he asked researchers and experts at the 15th Annual Coal Indaba in Johannesburg.

"The growth in electricity demand in line with the growth in the South Africa economy over the past several years has resulted in the erosion of Eskom's generation reserves resulting in a shortfall in coal supply."

With the extraction of coal becoming harder and more costly, he hoped the Fossil Fuel Foundation would look into the problems facing the coal sector and advise government on the best way forward.

Oliphant said that the State enterprise also faced losing some of its coal share in the market.

"We would be shirking our responsibility in not mentioning the apparent race in the developing countries..."

Historically, lower-grade coal was sold to Eskom for electricity generation but the power utility now faced losing even this low-grade coal to competing countries like India and China.

For many local coal-producing companies it was more lucrative to sell on the export market than to Eskom.

Oliphant said the role of government was to look at the regulatory framework to ensure that the needs of the country were taken into consideration.

Coal accounts for 70% of South Africa's primary energy consumption, 93% of electricity generation and 30% of petroleum liquid fuels.

Eskom hopes to spend more than R385-billion over the next five years to build the new infrastructure it needs to meet the country's electricity demand, and prevent a repeat of the 2008 power crisis. It hopes to double South Africa's power needs by 2030.