Centre for Environmental Rights – Advancing Environmental Rights in South Africa

On 29 October 2024, the President of the Republic of South Africa assented to the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Act 23 of 2024.

This Act has not yet commenced. Section 111 provides that it will come into operation on a date fixed by the President by proclamation in the Gazette.

According to Section 2, the objects of the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Act 23 of 2024 are to:

(a) recognise the internationally accepted right of the State to exercise sovereignty over all the petroleum resources within the Republic;
(b) give effect to the principle of the State’s custodianship of the nation’s petroleum resources;
(c) promote equitable access to the nation’s petroleum resources to all the people of South Africa;
(d) substantially and meaningfully expand opportunities for black persons, to enter into and actively participate in the upstream petroleum sector and to benefit from the exploitation of the nation’s petroleum resources;
(e) promote local employment, skills development, technology transfer and national industry participation through supply of goods and services;
(f) promote economic growth and petroleum resources development in the Republic;
(g) advance the social and economic welfare of all South Africans;
(h) provide for security of tenure in respect of exploration and production operations;
(i) give effect to section 24 of the Constitution by ensuring that the nation’s petroleum resources are developed in an orderly and ecologically sustainable manner while promoting justifiable social and economic development;
(j) accelerate exploration and production, and maximise the economic recovery of petroleum for the benefit of the people of South Africa;
(k) provide the framework for developing third party access arrangements to upstream petroleum infrastructure; and
(l) promote and facilitate acquisition of petroleum geo-technical data.