South Africa is set to lift a long-standing ban on shale gas exploration this month. The ban which was imposed in 2011 stopped the regulator from processing new applications for reconnaissance permits, as well as exploration and production rights.
According to the country’s environmental minister the lifting of the ban is following the finalization of the shale gas regulation framework. The earlier implementation of the ban was owing to a public outcry and court action by environmental campaigners concerned about the impact of hydraulic fracking in the ecologically sensitive Karoo region.
“Once those regulations are gazetted, I lift the moratorium,” Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe told Reuters. “The economy needs a growth trigger and oil and gas are those triggers.”
The regulations on shale gas will provide a framework to control environmental and safety concerns, including water challenges, associated with fracking in the semi-arid Karoo region.
South Africa, the continent’s most advanced economy, relies on piped gas from Mozambique to supply industrial users and needs new supplies as those fields are depleted. The country’s first liquefied natural gas import terminal is being developed at Richards Bay.
The Petroleum Agency of South Africa estimates the Karoo Basin holds around 209 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas resources.However, a 2017 study by geologists at University of Johannesburg said the amount ranged between 13 tcf and 390 tcf and was probably close to the lower end of that range.
