Shell + Karoo = Gasland 2
So Shell want to frack the Karoo basin. Do we really need what is happening in the US (as seen in this video) to happen to residents of the Karoo?
Several oil companies hope to prospect the Karoo for natural gas using suspect methodologies which have farmers and townsfolk alike up in arms. The latest developments suggest the department of minerals is willing to put the prospecting process on hold – a concession that is nowhere near enough to placate the growing numbers of people opposed to Karoo fracking. via Daily Maverick.
Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell is targeting potential untapped shale gas reserves in coal-hungry South Africa where landowners – including a Dutch princess – are readying for a showdown.
Shell applied in December to explore 90 000 square kilometres — twice the size of Denmark — for gas deposits in the clay-like shale rock of the arid central Karoo.
“The shale gas potential is quite high, because there is a high volume of shale and therefore the potential for gas development is very big,” said Jenny Marot of the state’s Petroleum Agency SA (PASA).
But more than 200 people want the application dropped, including landowner Dutch Princess Irene, due to environmental concerns and the use of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to release viable deposits if discovered.