Fracking at Drakensberg World Heritage Site

[Richprins]

One of our members contacted us from the Bergville area, where locals are up in arms about notices that have appeared out of the blue inviting comments on fracking along a large stretch of the Drakensberg, from the Free State border down in the direction of Winterton!

It appears the swathe is just outside the WHS beacons along the Oliviershoek "boundary".

Will get more info soon.

[Richprins]

C Published: 27 October 2011 C Last Updated: 02 October 2014 < Hits: 3849

South African’s have yet to become better informed about it....”fracking”. It burst onto the scene this year when the South African government halted plans for drilling for gas in the Karoo by oil company Shell. A moratorium was imposed on fracking allowing the government to better understand the environmental consequences it will have. In the meantime prospecting taking place in other parts of the country, including the Drakensberg has had less media coverage. Should we be surprised?

"Barkly East conservationist Kate Nelson, who runs a local guest farm and adventure company, said that while many people knew of the active anti-fracking campaign being run in respect of shale gas prospecting applications there, few were aware that large parts of the Free State, Eastern Cape Highlands and KwaZulu-Natal were under a similar threat. Prospecting permits had been granted to Anglo Coal and to a three-company consortium consisting of Sasol and foreign energy giants Statoil and Chesapeake Energy, covering an 88 000km2 tract of land right around Lesotho – including the central and southern Drakensberg regions of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Free State and the Eastern Cape Highlands.

The consortium, granted a one-year technical co-operation permit in November last year, was involved in a desktop exploration study which did not involve any drilling at this stage, Nelson said. Nevertheless, it is a situation that local residents need to monitor closely. The exploration permits had been granted despite the Drakensberg being one of the country’s top tourist attractions and a proclaimed World Heritage Site." Drakensberg and surrounds face fracking threat too

"Mthozami Xiphu, chief executive of Petroleum Agency SA, confirmed that Sasol, Statoil and Chesapeake were granted a one year technical co-operation permit in November in KZN, and were involved in a desktop exploration study which did not involve any drilling at this stage. Sasol spokeswoman Nothemba Noruwana said the oil giant hoped to complete its exploration study by the end of the year — but refused to say how it would extract the gas. Asked whether the company would frack the area,Noruwana said: 'It is early days and I don’t want to speculate on what we will or will not do.' However, mining experts say shale-gas mining is generally only possible using intensive methods such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking). To crack the shale and extract the gas, large volumes of water, sand and chemicals are injected into the ground under pressure." Now KZN faces threat of fracking

http://www.vertical-endeavour.com/blog/ ... hreat.html

[Richprins]

Long story here:

https://midlandsconservanciesforum.word ... ng/page/2/

But nothing really since 2014

[Richprins]

2013:

New player on fracking scene



11 September 2013 at 09:05am

By: Tony Carnie



Durban - A relatively unknown group of Gauteng entrepreneurs could be the main beneficiaries of plans to “frack” shale gas in KwaZulu-Natal.

Sungu Sungu, an empowerment group largely based in Joburg and Pretoria, has been awarded three preliminary “exploration” permits covering chunks of the central and northern parts of the province.

The largest exploration area is in the Ladysmith/Bergville area, below the water-rich Drakensberg, with a second block in the coal belt south of Newcastle.

The third Sungu Sungu permit covers the remote northern border with Mozambique, including the eastern section of the Tembe Elephant Park, home to some of Africa’s largest tuskers.

No final decision has been announced yet, but Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has added further cement to previous government signals that fracking will go ahead – despite widespread concerns in many parts of the world about the human health and environmental risks of injecting a high-pressure cocktail of chemicals, water and sand deep into the earth to fracture rock to extract natural fuel gas.

Last year the government lifted the moratorium on further fracking exploration permits, and the latest decision, to tighten up water regulations, suggests the all-clear will be given early next year.

This would open the way for Sungu Sungu, Shell and other players to begin formal exploration work in six provinces.

While Shell and other exploration groups have established, and often tarnished, records in the oil and gas business, Sungu Sungu is a new, mystery player.

Information on the group’s website was set up 15 years ago, but there is little detail about its ownership and corporate profile.

Joburg-based managing director Thabang Khomo, 45, told The Mercury that he remained the main shareholder, in partnership with geophysicist Solomon Lephoto, a former employee of the state oil company, PetroSA.

Company searches reveal that Sungu Sungu has numerous offshoots with a variety of directors.

These include Sungu Sungu Gas (registered in 2009), Ilima Sungu Sungu Resources Consortium Company, Sungu Sungu Mining, Sungu Sungu Petroleum, Sungu Sungu Resources, Sungu Sungu Namibia, Sungu Sungu Iron Ore and Sungu Sungu Projects.

Sylvia Nontombi Matshoba is a colourful character who was previously associated, indirectly, to Sungu Sungu. She has also been linked to disgraced former police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

Matshoba worked at the ANC head office in the 1990s as Selebi’s secretary in the party’s social welfare and development section.

However, it appears that Matshoba is no longer linked to Sungu Sungu. Her only, indirect, connection was through her directorship of Batlalepula Resources which she joined in January 2006. Records show she has resigned.



The only two other directors of Batlalepula are Thabang Khomo and geologist Sipho Velempini, who are joint directors of three other Sungu Sungu companies.

Khomo said Batlalepula become dormant about six years ago and Matshoba had also left that company.

Other directors of Sungu Sungu companies include Daphne Vuba, Nomadlozi Mashinini, Simisani Khupe and Lucky Mabanga.

Khomo said Sungu Sungu had been awarded three PetroSA technical co-operation permits for oil and gas in the KZN region, but these had not been exercised because of the fracking moratorium announced last year.

These permits did not allow exploratory drilling, just desktop geophysical studies and review of previous geological data from the 1970s by the old Soekor petroleum exploration agency.

Khomo said that while the preliminary exploration in KZN covered a large area, Sungu Sungu was unlikely to mine more than 5 to 10 percent of the total area, if viable gas reserves were found.

Asked whether Sungu Sungu had the funds for extensive exploration, Khomo said the preliminary desktop phase was not as capital intensive as drilling and exploration.

On whether the group was considering future partnerships with oil companies, Khomo said: “Not yet. At this stage the technical studies might cost R1-million to R2m. After that you may have to get some of the majors involved, or get experts from the US or Canada.”

Sungu Sungu is already busy in KZN exploring and drilling in the Melmoth area for iron ore deposits, in partnership with the Indian company Jindal Steel and Power. - The Mercury

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/science/en ... ne-1575932

[Richprins]

[Puff Addy]

Yay, more fracking!

[nan]

[Lisbeth]

It is very old though

When were you contacted and when were the notices put up?

Do the permits have an expiry time?

The Drakensberg is much further to to the west than the area on the map

[Lisbeth]

Firm ‘no’ to fracking in KZN

2015-11-03 09:32
Jonathan Erasmus and Amil Umraw, The Witness

Pietermaritzburg - A company wanting to explore the province for natural gas has admitted that “fracking is a possible end goal”.

Environmental consultant Matthew Hemming, of SLR Consulting and acting on behalf of Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa, made the statement at a heated meeting at Ashburton Community Hall in the first of 11 public consultation meetings being held throughout the Midlands.

Rhino, a Texas-owned company with its corporate offices in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands, has applied to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa to explore 1.5 million hectares, including 10 000 farms, near Pietermaritzburg, Ladysmith and Nkandla, looking for natural gas deposits in the main, and minerals. But in order for the company to proceed, it needs to present the agency with an environmental impact assessment which includes public consultation.

The 100-strong crowd that attended the first hearing included landowners, developers, business owners, farmers, councillors, environmentalists and a “spiritualist”, and gave a resounding “no” to any exploration.

While a variety of reasons for their rejection were given, in the main it was the feared detrimental effect any extraction of natural gas could have on the water table, while they maintained the area was also water scarce.

African Conservation Trust CEO Francois du Toit asked Rhino COO Phillip Steyn whether he agreed that fracking was the “end goal”.

Initially Steyn said “we don’t agree”. Du Toit then asked if there were “other technologies yet to be invented” that would be used, to which Steyn replied “The end goal is extraction”.

Finally, pushed for a “yes” or “no” answer, Steyn said “I don’t know”.

Hemming then interjected and said: “Depending on the nature of the geology, fracking could be [one of the mining methods used]. Fracking is a possible end goal,” he said.

Steyn said while Rhino had not done fracking before, their US owner had done so and had had “no [environmental] incidents” to his knowledge.

Hemming maintained that they were following the legal requirements.

“The environmental impact assessment process from start to finish is 300 days. It is our job to develop the best understanding of environmental challenges,” he said.

Feisty crowd

It was a feisty crowd at the Ashburton Hall and among them was Kelly Pearson, a Grade 10 pupil at St John’s DSG. She hand-delivered a petition with approximately 200 signatures of pupils at the high school, objecting to the “early phase petroleum exploration of the central KZN region”.

Reading a statement on behalf of the signatories, Pearson said: “I believe the risk to soil and water health will have serious repercussions ... this exploration will be the precursor to fracking in the future. I strongly object to this activity, which threatens the future heritage of our children.”

There were a few heated moments during the nearly four-hour meeting. Besides an early exodus of people who called the meeting “flawed” and “illegal”, a pensioner told Hemming that fracking would “take place over my dead body”, to which Hemming replied “Perhaps”.

In another incident, self-proclaimed spiritualist Brett Austin told Hemming to “F**k the process”, as they stood nearly nose to nose.

African Conservation Trust CEO Francois du Toit mocked the “public consultation process”, calling it a “box-ticking exercise”, while Durban-based and globally recognised environmentalist Desmond D’Sa called on the affected population to “not even allow [Rhino] through the door” for an opportunity to operate.

“Stand up against them and organise. [For them] it is about money and profit at the expense of our children,” he said.

However, there was a notable lack of representation from traditional authorities, the local municipality and the Ingonyama Trust Board.

Resident Hawu Mbatha said ­Rhino and the consultants had “excluded” people who were not “English-speaking”. “You did not even go to radio or print media to address these people,” he said.

Petition

Over 2 000 people have signed the “Don’t Frack our Water Factories” petition on community petition website Avaaz against the possibility of fracking in KZN.

According to Dargle Conservancy’s Nikki Brighton, there is also a buzz on social media opposing Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration’s application, with the hashtag #nofrackingkzn “starting to appear in all sorts of places”.

“NPOs and provincial residents have been registering as interested and affected parties and preparing questions to ask environmental consultants acting on behalf of Rhino SLR Consulting at a series of public meetings being held this week,” she said.

Brighton said pupils from schools in the Midlands had joined in by writing letters in opposition to fracking to the government, creating posters and holding impromptu demonstrations.

[Lisbeth]

40% of KZN surface fracking, oil drilling targets

CAPETIMES /
18 February 2016 at 22:43pm
By: Tony Carnie
Tony Carnie

DURBAN: Another massive chunk of KwaZulu-Natal has been earmarked for petroleum exploration, opening the door for potential oil drilling and gas fracking on nearly 40 percent of the land surface area of KZN.

The Texas-based exploration company Rhino Resources has already lodged an application to explore for oil and gas underneath a 1 500 000ha belt of land that includes 10 000 farms in the central part of KZN.

The first exploration zone stretches from Ixopo in the south to Nkandla in the north, taking in the areas around Pietermaritzburg, Mooi River, Ladysmith and Colenso.

Now Rhino Resources has announced further plans to explore a second belt of land covering almost 2 000 000ha and nearly 5 500 farms in the Newcastle, Vryheid, Pongola, Melmoth and Nongoma areas.

The two combined exploration zones cover nearly 37.5 percent of KZN’s total land surface area and nearly 15 500 farms.

Rhino Resources’ environmental consultants insist that the “early-phase” exploration work over three years would not involve any hydraulic rock fracturing (fracking), but acknowledged that the exploration could lead to future gas fracking and oil well drilling.

Fracking raises major concerns around the pollution of surface and underground water supplies and earth tremors. Further concerns have also been raised in the US and other parts of the world about the potential human health impacts of water contaminated by toxic chemicals used in the fracking process.

Last year, the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued a public statement noting a significant increase in earthquakes and seismic events associated with the oil and gas industry. Whereas Oklahoma state had historically recorded an average of one-and-a-half earthquakes a year with a magnitude higher than three on the Richter scale, the survey was now recording an average of two-and-a-half earthquakes of this magnitude each day.

The KZN Agricultural Union also voiced strong concern about the potential impact on farming if oil and gas production went ahead.

Jeremy Ridl, a Durban environmental attorney and co-founder of Earth Watch, said: “We all understand that cheap energy will benefit our economy. But our economy… cannot survive without water.”