Platts: South Africa: the fracking debate rages on

Oil companies are gearing up to explore the riches of South Africa’s Karoo desert as the government prepares to award shale gas permits toward the beginning of next year, raising the stakes of the debate even further.

Far below the Karoo, a thirsty semi-desert stretching from the western coast of South Africa across a third of the country, lies a potential solution to the country’s energy woes.

It is believed that there are large reserves of natural gas trapped within the shale that could be tapped through fracking.

Figures from the Department of Mineral Resources estimate reserves of 485 trillion cubic feet, and if explored could satisfy the country’s future energy needs. The economic consultancy Econometrix estimates that if just 5% of South Africa’s resources were economically recoverable, this will add more than Rand 80 billion to the economy, or 3.3% to gross domestic product for 25 years. The entire coal mining industry in 2010 grew GDP by about 1.8%.  MORE