South Africa will auction at least 10 new onshore blocks for shale gas exploration in the environmentally sensitive Karoo region, a government official told Reuters, as the country eyes alternative energy sources to ease its worst-ever power crisis.
South Africa’s first competitive auction for oil and gas resources, expected in 2024 or 2025 once legislation making provision for the bid round is passed, includes acreage once held by Shell.
PASA estimates the Karoo Basin holds around 209 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas resources, although a 2017 study by geologists at University of Johannesburg said this was probably 13 tcf, the lower end of estimates ranging between 13 tcf to 390 tcf. It isn’t clear how the cost would compare to existing coal fire power stations or the ever-cheaper wind and solar energies that are gradually replacing them.
Shell’s 90,000 square kms is available after the oil major early last year withdrew an application to explore, Sayidini said.
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