The R14.5bn loss for 2015 incurred by state-owned oil company PetroSA was due to management and board incompetence by rushing into a $261m project to drill for gas without proper preparation‚ a confidential report‚ soon to be tabled in Parliament‚ states.

The loss is the biggest yet by a state-owned enterprise.

Media not welcome at nuclear energy briefing The Department of Energy’s briefing on the nuclear build programme to Parliament’s energy portfolio committee will be a closed meeting with no media or members of the public present‚ committee chairman Fikile Majola announced on Tuesday.

The report is a summary of 11 investigations and consultants reports into Project Ikhwezi‚ a well-drilling project for liquefied natural gas‚ which was to be used as feedstock for PetroSA’s Mossel Bay refinery to prolong the plant’s life. However‚ drilling yielded only 10% of the gas that had been expected.

Cash-strapped PetroSA offers severance packages Cash-strapped national oil and gas company PetroSA announced on Tuesday that it is offering its employees voluntary severance packages to reduce operating costs.

While some of the investigations point to irregularities and a possibility of bribery and corruption in aspects of the project‚ the bigger problem appears to have been that investment decisions were made without the necessary technical information and that management instability had undermined the project.

-Read the full story at Business Day.