Exploration would cover vast area

IF mining companies have their way, an area nearly twice the size of Lesotho will be explored in South Africa for possible fracking — and that is predominantly in four provinces by just four companies.

While hydraulic fracturing has been on the agenda since 2010 in the Karoo, more recently the controversial mining method has been part of applications by four companies to mine large swathes of KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, the Eastern Cape and North West.

In total, applications by Rhino Oil and Gas, Sungu Sungu, Motuane Energy and Afro Energy could result in more than 5.9 million hectares of land being explored, mainly for coal-bed methane.

Lesotho — which will have many of the possible exploration areas running along its borders — occupies 3 million hectares.

On top of this, there are also applications under way to explore for shale gas, which lies deeper underground than coal-bed methane, by three companies — Shell, Falcon Oil and Gas, and Bundu Gas and Oil Exploration — in the Karoo, covering just over 12.4 million hectares.

While environmental groups have actively campaigned against even exploring for natural gases, arguing that this would almost certainly eventually result in fracking, the economic and employment benefits that are pitched are attractive.

A 2012 study by Econometrix estimated that fracking could result in as many as 700 000 jobs and boost the South African economy by as much as R2.142-trillion, depending of the life span of the projects and how much natural gas is exported. And this only factors in the estimated 450 trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the Karoo, without looking at other provinces.

The Department of Mineral Resources said this week that natural gas was being