The bottom line is that there is now at least some of the regulatory clarity that investors need for the upstream sector. How all of this is administered under Gwede Mantashe, who has not shown himself to be a particularly capable administrator, remains to be seen.

Listen to this article 4 min Listen to this article 4 min President Cyril Ramaphosa assented on 29 October to the Upstream Petroleum Resources Development Bill, which is aimed at providing regulatory clarity for the sector as South Africa scrambles to catch up with neighbouring Namibia and Mozambique in the oil and gas space.

"The Bill provides for the orderly development of petroleum resources and equitable access to and sustainable development of the petroleum resources, and enables active state and black persons' participation in the development of the nation's petroleum resources," said the Presidency in a statement.

The Act provides for the separation of the regulatory frameworks that oversee the mining and upstream petroleum sectors. Both sectors will be regulated by the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Petroleum under Gwede Mantashe.

"The creation of a dedicated legislative and regulatory regime governing upstream oil and gas exploration and production is something which many of our counterparts have taken up long ago; we are simply catching up with the curve," said Megan Rodgers, the head of oil and gas at the law firm CDH.

South Africa is certainly behind the curve on this front as gas -- seen as a "transition...