R16 million shale gas study to get underway

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development has signed an agreement with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University for a R16 million research project to conduct a technical evaluation and socio-economic analysis of shale gas in the Eastern Cape.

The Department says the exploitation of shale gas in the Karoo could be a game changer for the Eastern Cape.

Speaking at NMMU on Tuesday, project co-leader Professor Maarten De Wit says the project will determine how much gas there is and how much can be potentially extracted.

"It's a start towards assessing how much shale gas there is and if there is enough to take out economically. Can we do this in a way that does not effect the other resources like water and can we do it in a sustainable and clean way?" says De Wit

According to the Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development, conservative to optimistic estimates of the recoverable gas range between 20 and 485 trillion cubic feet with a potential return of between one to R20 trillion as well as undetermined savings in carbon taxes.

Speaking at the dialogue, Economic Development MEC, Mcebisi Jonas, questioned the validity of the anti-fracking lobbying.

"The most commonly held view underpinning the social opposition to fracking, seems to be that people are not in opposition to fracking in principle, but to the risk associated with potential underground contamination."

Jonas suggested that this partnership will help to determine whether the opposition to fracking "is real, or is it something that has been conjured up through a number of means including our own imagination."