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Monday, June 22, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

South Africa's entire existing gas distribution network is now licensed. This follows the awarding of licenses by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to all Sasol Gas' existing gas distribution facilities.

Sasol Gas is active in the transmission, distribution and trading of gas. Its network covers most of Gauteng and parts of the Free State, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

Sasol group executive director of the energy cluster, Dr Benny Mokaba, said that while the regulation of gas was a new phenomenon in South Africa, the assessment and granting of these licenses indicated that government and Sasol were geared towards ensuring access to alternative clean energy sources and security of supply for all South Africans.

To date, Nersa had awarded Sasol Gas licenses for 12 areas in KwaZulu-Natal and 84 areas in Gauteng, the Free State and Mpumalanga.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's energy minister said that the country has opened the bidding for partners ready to help finance the long-delayed 7-billion-dollar Inga 3 hydroelectric plant.

The government has created a new company to manage the project's construction. It's expected to last eight years and has attracted interest from mining giant BHP-Billiton.

The combined potential of Congo's Inga dams, in the relatively peaceful west of the country, has been estimated as high as 100 000 MW. But current output is around 700 MW and projects to revamp the dams have failed to find investment.

Congo opened the bidding process for companies interested in investing in the 4 320 MW Inga 3 plant after hosting talks on the project in Kinshasa last week.

Also making headlines:

The crashed Airbus search area continues to widen.
Global steel output was down 21% in May.
An economist claims that Eskom is guilty of price discrimination.
And, Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk says that tourism is weathering economic storm.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.