The Safety and Technical Advisory Council (STAC) was established on the 20th September 2016, this body serves as a transparent, non- biased, non-competitive advisory council that gives insight on Safety and Technical queries for the Methane Based Gas Industry. The Southern African Gas Association (SAGA) governs STAC, as it was established under its umbrella as an advisory body that reports directly to SAGA.
STAC’s objective is to render insight to the Methane Gas based Industry in South Africa, this is achieved by immense investigations and research on industry related concerns and queries. STAC, for now only focuses on gas reticulation systems within respective battery limits and within the definition of reticulation as stated in the Pressure Equipment Regulations (PER). The focus will over time be broadened to upstream operations including compressed and liquefied natural gas systems.
Persons within the industry, being; individuals or organisations, private or government, are all eligible to receive official recommendations from the research conducted by STAC. Any Safety and or Technical item relevant to the Methane Gas Based Industry in South Africa can be brought to the attention of STAC. This Advisory Council is not limited to national technical issues, STAC takes it upon itself to research and consider international trends in safety and technical matters, including practice.
All issues brought to the attention of STAC will be thoroughly evaluated and reported to SAGA. After proper consideration, one of the following will be actioned:
- Have a special council meeting to decide on how to advise on the matter at hand
- Engage with non-council experts in the field
- Call for public participation in the matter at hand
- Form sub-committees whom will engage with experts in the field, both locally and abroad, in order to advise on certain matters, and then report back to the council.
Once a formal recommendation has been reached by the Council, it is then forwarded to SAGA for consideration and publication as Safety or Technical Bulletin for Industry application.
Annual meetings
STAC will be hosting four council meetings annually, these meetings will have a scheduled duration of 5 hours, with the first 2 hours being an open discussion that is inclusive of the public, the remaining 3 hours will be allocated to the Council in a session of insightful feedback. Although a standardised number of annual meetings is set, the Council can be convened for an emergency meeting to address urgent matters.
All persons or organisations involved in the Methane Based Industry are encouraged to participate and engage with STAC. Contact with STAC can be made by (1) Emailing STAC through the STAC info Email Address (2) A ticket system will be set up where persons will be able to log tickets for the attention of STAC through the SAGA website (3) Through participating in the open platform portion of the quarterly STAC meetings.
