Cape Town - Fracking during exploration for shale gas in the Karoo should be allowed after buffer zones around all Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope stations have been defined – a process that could take one year.
There are more than 40 stations, excluding the core SKA array at the site near Carnarvon, just in the proposed western precinct of Shell’s exploration zone. Also, the current regulatory framework should first be augmented, also within 12 months, and a monitoring committee established “to ensure comprehensive and co-ordinated augmentation of the regulatory framework and supervision of operations”.
This according to the proposed plan for allowing fracking by the government’s task team. The plan forms one of the appendices in the team’s report “Investigation of Hydraulic Fracturing in the Karoo Basin of SA”, recently accepted by the cabinet.
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu confirmed during a media briefing last week that the moratorium on exploration drilling for shale gas in the Karoo had been lifted, but that fracking would not be allowed as part of this exploration work at this stage.
“We have agreed that the Department of Mineral Resources and SKA have to work closely to make sure that what happens is consistently monitored. The issue of SKA is one of the mitigating factors. If the fracking affects SKA, then we will have to go back to the cabinet,” she said. - Cape Argus