Iran considers energy market in South Africa

Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou said that Iran is interested in making investments in South African energy market, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

Namjou made the remarks on the sideline of a meeting with his visiting South African counterpart Dipuo Peters on Sunday.

Commenting on the potentials of Iranian companies, the minister said South Africa intended to make some 40 billion U.S. dollars of investment in its energy sector in the next years and the Iranian companies would have a 10-percent share in that market, according to the report.

The two countries could also cooperate in construction of renewable power plants, hydroelectric dams and small power plants, he was quoted as saying.

Peters said last week that South Africa may allocate more funding for nuclear power plants.

In view of growing energy demand, the 300 billion rands (about 39 billion U.S. dollars) allocated in the South African government budget for 2012/2013 may not be the final amount, Peters said in Cape Town, South Africa.

“I think the amount of money that has been allocated… for the nuclear build is not a thumb-suck, and we don’t actually think that is the end amount, but we believe that it is the beginning,” she said.

However, the South African official refused to give details on the specifications or tenders for the nuclear plantsm

“I don’t want to pre-empt the work of (the government’s) nuclear energy coordinating committee,” Peters said, according to English news.

In its integrated resource plan, the South African government aims to increase the nuclear output to 9.6 GW by 2029.