SOUTH Africa is on the verge of a "golden age" in energy, in light of the exploration being carried out in shale gas, and onshore and offshore oil, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters says.
Answering questions at the economic cluster ministers’ press briefing on Tuesday, Ms Peters said the Department of Energy "would announce the work they are doing (in those areas), when they are ready".
Ms Peters, who was energy minister until July before switching Cabinet posts with Ben Martins, said the government had provided 47 opportunities for construction of renewable energy sites. These were big opportunities for the sector. She said this had been acknowledged by several international organisations that monitored the sector.
Ms Peters said the benefits of these renewable energy projects were visible in the areas where they were located, and had provided short and long-term jobs for local people.
Ms Peters said when shale gas was found in the Karoo, storage of energy would become very important and renewable energy would be needed. Technology developments had moved to such an extent that the extraction of shale gas, using hydraulic fracturing (fracking), could be done safely with regard to the environment, and it would not interfere with the building of the multibillion-rand Square Kilometre Array radio telescope in the Karoo.
Regulations published by Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu last year went further than the extraction of shale gas, and included the exploration of onshore and offshore oil deposits, Ms Peters said.
All South Africa’s energy plans were in compliance with the promise made by President Jacob Zuma five years ago to reduce the country’s carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020. "All of our energy programmes bear this promise in mind," Ms Peters said.
Oil and gas exploration regulator the Petroleum Agency South Africa recently told Parliament’s energy committee that it estimated the Karoo’s shale gas reserves to be 40-trillion cubic feet, about one-10th of the original estimate made by the US Energy Information Agency of 480-trillion. However, the agency’s estimate was still considered to be commercially viable, as Mossgas was built on a deposit of 1-trillion cubic feet.
In February, the Department of Mineral Resources published two notices in the Government Gazette.
The first invites comment on placing a restriction on granting new reconnaissance, technical co-operation permits and exploration rights for the next two years.
The other restricts holders of licences that may be granted from applications received prior to February 2011 over a designated area, from using hydraulic fracturing in the exploration phase until the regulations are finalised. Global energy company Shell has applied for an exploration licence in the environmentally sensitive Karoo. Several other companies such as Bundu Oil & Gas, Falcon Oil & Gas, and most recently Australian company Challenger Energy have applied for licences.
Parliament’s energy committee suspended processing the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act Amendment Bill last month as it sought advice from the office of the speaker of the National Assembly.
The committee wants to put the oil and gas provisions into a separate bill.
