![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Stefano-Marani.jpg\")
<\/a>Protea Capital Management founder and CEO Jean Pierre Verster said he would have liked to short Renergen if he could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verster, who manages his own hedge funds at Protea Capital Management, is well known for predicting the collapse of Steinhoff and African Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told Business Day TV<\/a> he would not invest in Renergen and wished he had a short position in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A short position in a share is an instrument that allows an investor to profit when a company\u2019s share price falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Verster said he would have shorted Renergen. However, the company\u2019s share trading was too illiquid for him to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen all this nonsense started, and you compare what their reports said the reserves were versus what they produced, there were questions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that questions remain about Renergen\u2019s gas reserves, which is why he will not advise investing in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cilandia Capital\u2019s activist investment manager, Albie Cilliers, also alleged that Renergen does not have the gas reserves it claims to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cilliers said Renergen has failed to prove that its helium and natural gas reserves live up to the Sprouce report\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said that Renergen\u2019s actual production data since the company started producing LNG in October 2022 does not support the assumptions and data used by Sproule in its 2021 report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marani hit back, saying the company does not make any \u201cclaims\u201d regarding its reserves at the Virginia Gas Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather, Renergen publishes reports stating reserves and resources following the SAMOG codes per the JSE\u2019s guidelines, which are available on the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese reports are prepared by independent US and Canadian-qualified petroleum engineers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Renergen\u2019s most important resources is a 2021 report released by Sproule, which said the Virginia Gas Field holds significant potential for methane and helium production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renergen faces numerous challenges, including environmental problems, a fight with a solar project in its operation area, and raising much more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2024, Renergen\u2019s Tetra4 project suffered a blow following an objection by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) to its integrated water and waste management plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renergen responded, saying it is unlikely to impact the timing of Phase 2 because its select drilling programme is fully authorised under the Production Right granted in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also involved in a dispute over the construction of the Springbok Solar project, which Independent Power Producer SOLA Group owns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company claimed that the ongoing construction of the Springbok Solar project was in an area designated for future natural gas extraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, 11 November 2024, SOLA announced that the Mineral Resources Department had rejected Renergen\u2019s suspension application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SOLA Group\u2019s co-founder and executive director, Chris Haw, said it means that the Springbok Project could continue construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another problem is that Renergen needs a large amount of money to continue developing the Virginia Gas Project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It plans to raise money through a Nasdaq listing in the United States. However, tensions between South Africa and the United States can hamper these plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These problems and Renergen\u2019s ongoing financial challenges have raised questions about its ability to raise enough money to continue operating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Shapiro from Sasfin Securities said he could not see Renergen making it and would not advise people to buy the stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt will take a huge amount of money and effort to get this thing productive to a point where you are making big profits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe more I look at Renergen, the more nervous I get about the operation. Sooner or later, they need to get big money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Renergen\u2019s share price has plummeted by over 50% over the last year as investors lost trust in the energy company\u2019s ability to deliver on its promises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":816518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[19967,21999,15021,17623],"class_list":["post-816516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-jean-pierre-verster","tag-johannesburg-stock-exchange-jse","tag-renergen","tag-stefano-marani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816522,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816516\/revisions\/816522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Renergen facing significant challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n