Another massive chunk of KwaZulu-Natal has been earmarked for petroleum exploration, opening the door for potential oil drilling and gas fracking on nearly 40% of the land surface area of the province.
The Texas-based exploration company Rhino Resources has already lodged an application to explore for oil and gas underneath a 1 500 000 hectare belt of land that includes 10 000 farms in the central part of KZN.
The first exploration zone stretches from Ixopo in the south to Nkandla in the north, taking in the areas around Pietermaritzburg, Mooi River, Ladysmith and Colenso.
Now Rhino Resources has announced further plans to explore a second belt of land covering almost 2 000 000ha and nearly 5 500 farms in the Newcastle, Vryheid, Pongola, Melmoth and Nongoma areas.
The two combined exploration zones cover nearly 37.5% of KZN’s total land surface area and nearly 15 500 farms.
Rhino Resources’ environmental consultants insist that the “early-phase” exploration work over three years will not involve any hydraulic rock fracturing (fracking), but acknowledge that the exploration could lead to future gas fracking and oil-well drilling if commercially viable volumes of petroleum are discovered.
Fracking involves injecting a high-pressure cocktail of chemicals and water deep underground to shatter gas-rich rock formations, raising major concerns about the pollution of surface and underground water supplies and earth tremors.
Further concerns have also been raised in the US and other parts of the world about the potential human health impacts of water contaminated by toxic chemicals used in the fracking process.
Last year, the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued a public statement noting a significant increase in earthquakes and seismic events associated with the oil and gas industry.
Whereas Oklahoma state had historically recorded an average of one and a half earthquakes a year with a magnitude higher than three on the Richter Scale, the Survey was now recording an average of two and a half earthquakes of this magnitude each day.
Earthquakes
“The seismicity rate in 2103 was 70 times greater than the background seismicity rate observed in Oklahoma prior to 2008,” said state geologist Richard Andrews.
The Oklahoma Geological Survey said natural processes were unlikely to be responsible, and it was “very likely” that the new spate of earthquakes was associated with deep underground water injection, mainly by the oil and gas industry.
Senior officials of the US Geological Survey reached similar conclusions in an article published in Science magazine last year.
Late last year the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union also voiced strong concern about the potential impacts on farming if oil and gas production went ahead.
Jeremy Ridl, a Durban environmental attorney and co-founder of Earth Watch, said: “We all understand that cheap energy will benefit our economy. But while our economy will survive without gas, it cannot survive without water.
“The current drought has had a serious impact on our economy, threatening to throw us into recession.
“Surely that is a good enough reason to adopt a cautious and risk-averse approach to decisions that affect the environment and water resources?”
Rhino Resources environmental consultant Matthew Hemming said if exploration rights were granted, the initial work would not involve any fracking and would be restricted to desk-top studies, the drilling of no more than 10 rock core samples, seismic surveys and possibly apatite fission track analysis and full tensor gradiometry gravity surveys.
“Rhino will ensure that their activities are only undertaken at sites where it is lawful and environmentally responsible to do so.”
Hemming acknowledged, however, that most people who had attended public meetings were opposed to the Rhino Resources oil exploration proposals.
He is holding a further series of public meetings from March 2-11 in Ulundi, Dundee, Pongola, Melmoth, Vryheid, Newcastle and Dannhauser. For more information, contact Hemming by fax at 011 467 0978 or e-mail him at mhemming@ slrconsulting.com.