I have read all those articles; my concern is the government will award exploration licenses with the ban on fracking still in place. Plus, as a company, do you really want rules in place that can shut you down without proof or reason? In the US, there needs to be conclusive evidence to shut your operation down prior to an investigation.

I see your argument here, but after this statement was made Jonathan Deal applauded Susan Shabangu. I cannot imagine he would applaud anything coming from her mouth unless it applied to the Karoo in its entirety. Plus, this is a guy who under no circumstance wants fracking in S.A..... so the bigger question is, what is he really applauding? After all, this is a person who has consulted with Josh Fox! The same guy who was caught tying a propane line to a house water hose to prove natural gas was leeching into drinking water in his last film.

But for the sake of argument, let say this statement is correct and these companies will get to frack during their exploration. "However the second section is key as it paves the way for exploration rights to be awarded to Shell (LON:RDSA), AIM- and Toronto-listed junior Falcon Oil & Gas (LON:FOG, CVE:FO) and Bundu Oil, which is majority owned by ASX listed Challenger Energy (ASX:CEL)."

This sounds like a pilot program to me. As an investor, I don't want Falcon participating in a pilot program to only have the rug pulled out from under their feet. The last thing I want is the government to use this initial phase of licensing as a way to prove its reserves considering their semi-nationalization policy towards natural resources.

Their current policy sound more like a drug trial than an exploration program. You ever hear stories of where people enter these trials, the medicine is working to only have the trial end and the person's health reverses course? Sorry, thanks for your participation but you cannot take the medicine anymore until we get approval.

I have been the biggest supporter of the S.A asset, but the regulatory environment is getting murkier by the day. With that being said, come on Beetaloo!