Renergen: Balrogs and Pancake Swaps

Renergen has released a quarterly activities report that covers the three months to February 2022. Aside from lots of excitement around the core operations and the introduction of new investors, there are some rather memorable names for the wells and the exchanges on which the helium tokens will trade.

Much of the newsflow was in March, which strictly speaking falls outside of this reporting period. Nonetheless, the Renergen report highlights the capital investment transactions along with other updates.

I’ve previously written in InceConnect on the Ivanhoe Mines transaction and the 10% investment in Tetra4 (the holding company for the Virginia Gas projects) by the Central Energy Fund (CEF). Follow the links to read about them in detail.

The report also highlights an offtake agreement with Italtile for liquefied natural gas (LNG). This is a source of low-carbon fuel for the production process of ceramics, which uses considerable amounts of thermal energy. The benefit for Italtile is that the company can forecast its energy inputs with less exposure to volatile commodity markets. The benefit for Renergen is obvious: the sale of LNG to an industrial customer in a strategy to displace liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

The attractiveness of LNG as an energy source contributed to the decision by Ivanhoe Mines to invest in Renergen. Other than the investment option to take this to a controlling stake, the deal includes the right for Ivanhoe to use Renergen’s LNG to power its platinum operations in South Africa in a strategy to take the mine off-grid using clean energy.

Moving on to the Virginia Gas Plant, all process plant modules have arrived and are positioned onsite. Electrical terminations and utility connections are in the final stages of completion and the civil construction of roads and buildings is ongoing.

The most prospective Virginia Exploration Rights have been submitted for renewal to the regulator. The three least prospective rights have not been renewed as this is a costly exercise. Instead, a Technical Cooperation Permit has been lodged over the area to ensure maintenance of mineral tenure.

Two new wells at the Virginia project have struck gas. In a nod to geeks everywhere, the latest wells are named Frodo and Balrog (after Lord of the Rings characters), following on from wells R2D2 and C3PO (Star Wars). Beyond the unusual naming convention, the important news is that the latest wells were sited using new techniques and Renergen seems to be happy with the outcomes of the technology.

Finally, the introduction of helium tokens to create a spot market for the gas is well underway. The subscription service online went live and listings on exchanges have been confirmed for April. The odd names for the wells are surpassed only by the name of one of the crypto exchanges for the tokens: Pancake Swap.

There’s never a dull moment at Renergen.