Name of the Project
Virginia gas project.

Location
The project spans 187 000 ha across Welkom, Virginia, and Theunissen in the Free State, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
Development stage advanced materials company ASP Isotopes completed the acquisition of Renergen in January 2026.

Project Description
The Virginia gas project involves building a 52 km gas-gathering pipeline and cryogenic liquefaction facilities. It aims to meet South Africa’s helium demand and export the surplus, alongside the country’s first commercial LNG output.

Phase 1 aims to produce 350 kg/d of helium and 50 t/d of LNG (about 75 000 ℓ/d diesel equivalent). Phase 2 will significantly scale up output and infrastructure.

Phase 2 will entail drilling additional gas wells, building additional gas-gathering pipelines and a larger processing and liquefaction facility, as well as the associated road tanker distribution and downstream customer dispensing facilities.

In this phase, production output will increase by 34 400 GJ/d of LNG and 4 200 kg/d of liquid helium, in addition to the Phase 1 operation.

Potential Job Creation
An estimated 360 temporary jobs during development and 160 permanent jobs once fully operational.

Capital Expenditure
Phase 1 – about R1-billion.
Phase 2 – about $1.16-billion

Planned Start/End Date
Phase 1 is targeted for completion this year and the start of Phase 2 thereafter.

Latest Developments
ASP Isotopes has completed the drilling of the wells required for Phase 1 of the helium project, about four months ahead of schedule.

Drilling results from the Phase 1C exploration campaign have indicated that the reservoir system is capable of delivering gas flow rates that meet or exceed previously estimated type curves – directly addressing the flow constraints that have historically limited plant utilisation and helium production.

“This result, together with the cumulative flow data from the broader campaign, demonstrate that the field is capable of sustaining the gas volumes required to operate the helium plant at efficient capacity once wells are tied into the plant,” ASP Isotopes CEO and executive chairperson Paul Mann has said.

Since restarting operations in April 2025, following bridge loan funding provided by ASP Isotopes prior to the completion of the acquisition of Renergen, the project has advanced across drilling execution, gas production and plant readiness.

The drilling programme for Phase 1 of the project has now achieved the required cumulative nameplate flow rate, and this milestone reduces execution risk for Phase 1, as the remaining activities to ramp up production to full capacity are now primarily engineering-orientated tasks with considerably fewer uncertainties, ASP avers.

The company has attributed the recent drilling success to the post-restart engagement of a US-based company to support seismic interpretation, reservoir modelling, well placement, well design and drilling execution.

This represents a departure from prior drilling approaches and has directly informed improved target selection and well design, it has highlighted.

Recent drilling successes have seen gas flow rates up to 16 times that achieved in some of the earlier wells, the company has noted.

During the next few months, the team intends to tie in these new wells with the processing plant.

Once all the wells have been completed and made production-ready with tie-in to the gas network, the total flow is expected to meet or exceed Phase 1’s nameplate capacity.

Production is expected to be increased to match the customers’ demand and ability to offtake the product.

ASP has said it is working actively with customers to align delivery timelines.

Following the acquisition of Renergen, ASP is focused on the long-term development of helium production at the Virginia gas project.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Phase 1 contractors include: Sproule (helium reserve independent expert); VGI (owner’s engineer – engineering and procurement phase, or EPC); EPCM Bonisana, a subsidiary of EPCM Holdings (EPC contractor for the gas-gathering pipeline); Western Shell Cryogenic Equipment (technology and equipment); Babcock (DAF CF 430 trucks); and Volvo (FM440 trucks) were provided by Babcock and Volvo respectively.

Phase 2 contracts include: Saipem (front-end engineering design – downstream LNG and helium processing facilities); Sproule (evaluation and certification of reserves, based on ongoing drilling, building on previous work done by MHA Petroleum Consultants); Worley RSA (owner’s engineer scope for the expansion). 

Contact Details for Project Information
Renergen, tel +27 10 045 6000 or email info@renergen.co.za/investorrelations@renergen.co.za.