Government’s renewed appetite for fracking leaves a bad taste
2 June 2023
The South African government has recently renewed its appetite for shale gas exploration and extraction in the Karoo with Gwede Mantashe, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, announcing that groundwork has been done for proceeding with the onshore extraction of fossil fuels in the Karoo.
Government plans on lifting the moratorium on shale gas soon, whilst auctioning off ten onshore blocks for oil and gas exploration across the Karoo. According to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA), some stratigraphic rock core samples drilled during 2020 and 2021 indicated the presence of both shale gas and oil.
In reference to South Africa’s commitments to pivot towards renewable sources of energy and the country’s Just Energy Transition Plan and commitments to a low-carbon future, Mantashe stated that “our transition is going to be sustainable if we access oil and gas on our shores. We are going to issue a request for proposals to explore that gas now.”
“The extraction of shale gas in South Africa’s semi-arid Karoo region will require the use of drilling and High-Volume Slickwater Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (“fracking”). It has been unequivocally demonstrated in other countries that this water intensive technology presents a high public health and environmental risk, with proven cases of groundwater and air pollution,” says Lambert de Klerk, Manager for Environmental Affairs at AfriForum, in reaction to the recent developments.