Fracking - Coming to a Karoo Near You

[Klipspringer]

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south- ... sca-rules/

Exploration for petroleum by fracking cannot go ahead, SCA rules
04 July 2019 - 16:39
BY ERNEST MABUZA


The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled on Thursday that the minister of mineral resources did not have the power to make regulations for petroleum exploration and production.

These regulations governed the exploration and production of petroleum, including shale gas through the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The judgment has stalled plans to explore for petroleum by hydraulic fracturing for now because the SCA also set aside the petroleum regulations in their entirety.

The SCA passed its judgment in two cases on appeal which were consolidated for hearing before the court.

In one case brought by Karoo farmers, the high court in Grahamstown had held that the minister of mineral resources was not empowered to make the petroleum regulations which were promulgated in 2015.

However, the high court in Pretoria – in a case brought by Treasure the Karoo Action Group and AfriForum – had ruled in favour of the minister on the same issue.

The matter has its genesis between 2008 and 2010, when three entities applied for rights to explore for shale gas in the Karoo through the use of fracking.

The fracking process would likely have a variety of adverse impacts on the environment, most notably the emissions of pollutants and the contamination of both surface water and groundwater.

As a result of this, the minister of mineral resources established an interdepartmental task team to evaluate the potential risks posed by fracking.

The result was that the environment minister, the mineral resources minister and the minister responsible for water affairs entered into an agreement in respect of the management of environmental impacts of activities under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Management Act (MPRDA).

The agreement, known as the One Environmental System, was that all environmental aspects would be repealed from the MPRDA and that these would fall under the control of the environment minister under the National Environmental Management Act (Nema).

Despite this agreement, the minister of mineral resources promulgated the petroleum regulations in 2015.

These regulations were then challenged in the two high court cases, one in Grahamstown and the other in Pretoria.

In its judgment on Thursday, the SCA held that the implementation of the One Environmental System divested the minister of mineral resources of the power to make regulations.

“As I have shown, the One Environmental System envisaged that all environmental aspects relating to prospecting, exploration, mining or production in terms of the MPRDA would be regulated through Nema and its subordinate legislation.

[Lisbeth]

In Switzerland, near Basel, it has turned out, been proved how dangerous the fracking can be to the whole environment and not only where the fracking has been undertaken. Probably it also depends on what they find down there, but that's exactly why it must be prohibited.

[Richprins]

SA finds pockets of shale gas in Karoo while conducting drilling tests
18 May 2021 - 18:59
Aphiwe Deklerk Political reporter


The debate on fracking in the Karoo may be back on the cards after mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe told parliament that his department found pockets of shale gas there during drilling.

Mantashe was addressing a mini-plenary sitting during his budget vote on Tuesday afternoon.

Fracking in the Karoo has generated a lot of opposition from activists who fear its damage to the environment.

Mantashe said his department in September last year set out to drill a 3,500m stratigraphic hole in the Karoo to establish and test the occurrence of shale gas.

“This work also seeks to understand the geology and environmental characteristics of the area. I am pleased to share with this house that as of yesterday, we had drilled to a depth of 2,750m.

“The first pocket of gas was intercepted at 1,734m with a further substantial amount intercepted at 2,467m, spanning a depth of 55m. To date, a total of 34 gas samples have been bottled in canisters and taken to one of our laboratories for analysis,” said Mantashe.

Fracking in the Karoo had been stopped by a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling that the minister of mineral resources did not have the power to make regulations for petroleum exploration and production.

The DMRE had been taken to court by the Karoo Action Group, AfriForum and Karoo farmers. In 2019, the DMRE granted permits to three companies to explore for shale gas but they are not allowed to use fracking.

Mantashe further told parliament that the two gas finds, the onshore gas operation in the Free State, coupled with more prospects that are under way along SA’s western and eastern territorial waters were delivering positive signals that the country will succeed in developing the resources in line with its ocean’s economy agenda.

He, however, warned that it was not going to be a smooth way towards their goal.

“Most of the time when we make these discoveries, we get people who resist, particularly on the basis of environmental impact. And what we forget is that the most developed countries that actually attack us, to move from high carbon dioxide emissions to low carbon emission actually went through this development path and they expect us to just switch off.

“We are a developing economy and that should inform our strategy in whatever we do in developing. But our commitment to low carbon emissions is unwavering, we know that it is going to be a journey, that's why we talk of a transition, it's just a transition. It is not going to be moving from one extreme to another,” said Mantashe.

TimesLIVE

https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/sout ... ing-tests/

[Lisbeth]

Another one who does not know how dangerous a path he has taken I wonder if he has read about all the disasters that fracking has done all over the world

[harrys]

Another one who does not know how dangerous a path he has taken I wonder if he has read about all the disasters that fracking has done all over the world

Do you think he cares Lis, all he is seeing is all the money he and his friends can make

[Lisbeth]

He has to respond to the parliament

[Peter Betts]

He has to respond to the parliament

He belongs to the Majority ruling Do what we like Party

[Lisbeth]

Relief for more than 6,000 farmers as gas exploration application is withdrawn


An area in northeastern Free State where Rhino Oil applied for rights to explore gas and oil. “I think you can understand why we do not want someone to destroy it,” said an anonymous Free State Farmer. (Photo: Anonymous Free State farmer in application area)

By Julia Evans | 24 Mar 2022

An application to explore for gas on more than 6,000 farms in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State was withdrawn by Rhino Oil in February after years of resistance from affected farming communities.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Farmers in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State have breathed a tentative sigh of relief after an application to explore for gas on thousands of farms was withdrawn.

Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa – known as Rhino Oil – applied for onshore exploration of petroleum and gas spanning more than one million hectares across 6,000 farms in September 2018, which was accepted by the Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa) in October 2018 (after which the minister would grant the application).

This was despite there being a Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) moratorium prohibiting the granting of technical cooperation permits, exploration rights and production rights for petroleum and natural gas.

Since first hearing about the application in late 2018, a Free State farmer who is the chairman of the district farmer’s union, George Galloway, has worked with his fellow farmers and landowners in the two provinces to oppose the application.

Moolman & Pienaar Inc, on behalf of the farmers, has over the past three years challenged Pasa’s granting of the application through internal appeal and court processes, including seeking court orders to compel DMRE Minister Gwede Mantashe to respond to the internal appeal, threatening the minister with contempt of proceedings, and the minister rejecting the internal appeal.

But, in the end, it was Rhino Oil that brought a stop to the exploration by withdrawing the application in February this year.

“We were on the verge of launching a review application against the minister, but have now received this letter from the minister and Rhino Oil that they have withdrawn their application for exploration rights over the area,” Clarissa Pienaar, a director of Moolman & Pienaar Inc, told Our Burning Planet.

“It was a huge effort from all the farmers’ associations to get together and fight this.

“They are fighting… and paying for South Africa. They fought this on their own. And it is something that is benefiting the whole country, and in particular, Gauteng — who get their water from there,” she said

Travis Smithard, director of Rhino Resources, told Daily Maverick that they withdrew the application because “we interpreted the chance of biogenic methane there to be low and so not technically attractive. We could be wrong — we expect to learn more as we go.”

Galloway said: “We, the farmers, had to finance this fight. But… it cannot carry on like this,” adding that if extraction occurred, he doesn’t think he’d carry on with his farming activities.

Pienaar reflected: “The fact that they have withdrawn the application is a huge relief for not just the farmers, but for South Africa as a whole because that area includes water resources for the upper Vaal, Orange and catchment areas which supply Gauteng. It’s a very big farmer-intensive area and a protected area.”

A farmer in the region, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “[The farmers] put their foot down to not accept this and gave their support.

“As one farmer said — no one is looking after our interest. We have to pay for everything to protect the food supply in SA.”

A deep mistrust

The application was for early phase exploration for oil and gas and was restricted to “desktop data review and the undertaking of an aerial survey”, according to Rhino Oil’s scoping report.

The scoping report stated: “No stimulation, pressure testing, hydraulic fracturing or water abstraction is included in the proposed exploration work to authorised by this Exploration Right.”

However, as the scoping report acknowledged, “It is evident that public opinion on whether the project should be approved is a resounding ‘no’.”


An area in northeastern Free State where Rhino Oil applied for rights to explore gas and oil. “I think you can understand why we do not want someone to destroy it,” said an anonymous Free State Farmer. (Photo: Anonymous Free State farmer in application area)

Obviously, the end goal would be to extract gas resources, if they were found.

Smithard said: “The objective is to explore for biogenic methane and associated gases [helium and hydrogen]. If those gases are found in commercial quantities, we will apply for production rights from Pasa.”

The area in the application included water source areas for the Upper Vaal, Orange and Thukela catchments.

According to Rhino Oil’s scoping report, “These ‘water factories’ supply a disproportionate amount of runoff and the water they provision supports the growth and development needs of the national economy. The water supply to Gauteng, in particular, is of key significance, not only to the province but to the whole country.”

Landowners were concerned about how this extraction would affect their water resources.

Rhino Oil has maintained that it was not exploring shale gas, but was exploring for biogenic methane and associated gases and that they would “extract naturally”, not with “fracking”.


An area in northeastern Free State, near Harrismith, where Rhino Oil applied for rights to explore for gas and oil. (Photo: Jan van Niekerk)
Smithard explained that the extraction process — called a conventional pressure depletion — is where a well is drilled and the gas that sits in that well rises naturally, just as a helium balloon naturally rises in the air because it’s more buoyant or less dense than the surrounding air. Shale gas extraction is done by creating permeability through “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing).

Smithard was adamant that agriculture could continue alongside these processes, citing the example of the many wells that were drilled for gold mines in the Free State on farms that are still operational.

However, landowners and farmers are not convinced and express concern that once these types of companies are granted access to extract minerals it will escalate to more invasive processes like fracking, which entails a process that most likely imports seawater and sea sand and can lead to the pollution of groundwater resources.

A Free State farmer in the application area, who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, said a huge issue of concern is that because the government is the custodian of the minerals according to law, the landowners can’t stop anybody from going on to their land to get the minerals if they are granted authorisation.

“One of the most important things is going to be that the farmers will have no control of who’s on the land,” they said.

“The short and the sweet of it is… we don’t trust these people. At all,” said Galloway.

He added: “The government and certain people, as far as we are concerned, do not appreciate the impact that fracking will have on our lives and nature.

“And government and certain people think we — the farmers — use food security as an excuse for many things. But it is not the truth.

“That’s a blatant lie… because, you know, this area … is what I call the meat basket of this country [referring to cattle and sheep] and is also known as the maize basket of this country.”


A northeastern Free State scene where Rhino Oil applied for rights to explore gas and oil. (Photo: Anonymous Free State farmer in application area)

A freelance geologist, who worked in the Karoo for several decades and wished to remain anonymous for fear of jeopardising future work opportunities, questioned the intentions of Rhino Oil wanting to explore for gas when it’s a well-known fact that South Africa has huge gas resources.

“We know there is gas in the Karoo rocks of South Africa. To extract gas is extremely useful for South Africa. It is the honesty of the present team of consultants and developers that is questionable.

“Although I am not against mining as an activity, I do object if the environmental impact is not revealed during these applications.”

The geologist believes these exploration applications are a smokescreen and are intended to convince the government to allow them to frack, as there comes a stage where gas can’t naturally rise and you have to start breaking the earth.

“In our application, we have to show that we’re technically competent, financially competent, that we’ve got a good case to try and at least find this gas. Because, of course, the last thing the government wants to do is essentially give the right to explore to some entity that ultimately is not going to be able to do it,” Smithard said.

Rhino Oil has applied for multiple exploration rights over various areas, some of which have already been granted for aerial non-invasive prospecting (like ER 294 and ER 318).

Currently, another Rhino Oil application of a similar size (ER 350) — spanning approximately 780,000 hectares over 4,000 farms in a similar area in the Free State and KZN — is awaiting the minister’s response after Moolman & Pienaar Inc filed an internal appeal against Pasa’s acceptance of the application. ER 350 is depicted below.


A map depicting the areas where mineral exploration companies, including Rhino Oil and Renegen, have applied for exploration rights in Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. (Credit: Jack Armour)

Also depicted on the map above are gas projects by Renergen, a helium and natural gas producer in South Africa, which Smithard says wants to follow suit.

“This is what I’m afraid of — we don’t know who’s going to be the next applicant,” said Galloway. DM/OBP