Karoo closer to exploration but fracking still far away
Wildlife in South Africa’s Karoo Basin. A major study is under way to assess the impact of fracking. (Dominic Morel)
The prospects for shale gas exploration in South Africa’s Karoo Basin are slowly improving, but it will be at least two years until the first well is fracked.
Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA), the country’s state regulator, is assessing the five shale applications made by three companies – Shell, Falcon Oil & Gas, and Bundu Gas & Oil – and will make recommendations to the minister of mineral resources for final approval "in a month or two months’ time," Tebogo Motloung, PASA’s manager of licensing and legal compliance, told Interfax Natural Gas Daily this week.