This comment from Sasol about the Karoo is a bit surprising given the size of Sasol's operations in S.A. but this statement could also reflect that the best parts of the Karoo were long gone by the time that Sasol decided they wanted to have some non-conventional gas assets. The Karoo region was almost completely taken up by Falcon and Shell before Sasol even started looking at non-conventional gas properties.

In order for Sasol to get it's hands on prospective non-conventional gas assets Sasol had to go all the way to British Columbia in 2011. Sasol paid a small fortune to Talisman Energy to get a 50% interest in just one portion of Talisman's unconventional gas assets in the Montenay region of British Columbia.

Here is a clip from Talisman's news release in 2011, bearing in mind that 4.8 TCF of contingent resources are still in the ground and there are no LNG trains built anywhere in British Columbia and won't be for years - so the gas is not going to flow for a long time:

"Sasol has purchased a 50% net working interest in Talisman’s Cypress A assets northwest of Fort St. John, BC, for $1.05 billion (Can.). Talisman will operate and manage the Cypress A and Farrell Creek areas as an integrated development project.

Sasol purchased a 50% net interest in Talisman’s Farrell Creek Montney properties west of Fort St. John in December 2010. That deal, in which Sasol acquired an estimated 4.8 tcf equivalent of net contingent resource, closed Mar. 1, 2011. Talisman said the Farrell Creek and Cypress A assets are similar.

Sasol Chief Executive Pat Davies said, “This additional acquisition of another high-quality natural gas asset will accelerate our upstream growth while also potentially advancing Sasol’s already strong gas-to-liquids value proposition utilizing our proprietary technology.”

Talisman said the Cypress A transaction represents the sale of 14% or 5.6 tcfe of its remaining estimated 39 tcfe of net contingent resource in the play and 17% or 28,600 net acres of its net Tier 1 acres of land in the Montney shale.

The companies do not expect to begin commercial development at Cypress A, which is less mature than Farrell Creek, for several years. A number of options for long-term egress from the area are being considered."

The other very interesting aspect of this Sasol statement is the value it adds to the Beetaloo JV. Sasol must have a great deal of confidence that the subsurface and ecomomic challenges in Beetaloo are very promising - if they are investing almost $100 million to get a 35% interest at this early stage.