Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said, “If extraction of the gas can be done safely, let’s go and do it.” Source: South African Government via Bloomberg
By Franz Wild and Andres R. Martinez on September 07, 2012
South Africa, which has the world’s fifth-largest shale-gas resources, lifted a moratorium on the exploration of natural gas trapped in rock, the mines ministry said.
The government imposed a ban last year on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, while it studied the environmental repercussions of allowing companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Falcon Oil & Gas Ltd. (FO) and Bundu Oil & Gas (Pty) Ltd. to employ the practice. Fracking, which involves blasting water mixed with sand and chemicals underground to free trapped hydrocarbons from shale formations, has been banned in France.
“We need to explore the possibilities of us having a resource of shale gas in the country in order to address our energy needs,” Collins Chabane, the minister in the presidency, said in an interview with Johannesburg’s eNCA television channel.
South Africa, an oil importer that’s threatened by power shortages, has about 485 trillion cubic feet of shale gas resources, according to a study by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that was published last year.
China, the U.S., Canada and Argentina have the biggest shale gas resources, the study shows, and South Africa’s are equivalent to about 7.3 percent of the world total.
Sheep Country
Developing a 10th of South Africa’s resources may boost the economy by about 200 billion rand ($24 billion) a year, a study by Johannesburg-based research company Econometrix Ltd. and commissioned by Shell showed earlier this year.
The resources stretch across the Karoo, an arid area in western South Africa, best known for sheep farming. Shell applied in 2011 to drill 24 wells in 90,000 square kilometres (34,749 square miles) of land in the Karoo.
“South Africa has made a hasty and ill-informed decision about a very unpopular technology,” Jonathan Deal, chairman of Cape Town-based Treasure Karoo Action Group, said in a telephone interview after the decision. “We will oppose the issuance of drilling licenses. If that is ignored, we will proceed with formal litigation.”
Shale gas should contribute to energy production, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters said May 17. “If extraction of the gas can be done safely, let’s go and do it,” she said.
Shale gas “will be instrumental in meeting South Africa’s growing energy demand, while creating sustainable and permanent jobs for South Africans,” Shell said in an e-mailed comment.
To contact the reporters on this story: Franz Wild in Johannesburg at [email protected]; Andres R. Martinez in Johannesburg at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at [email protected]
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
