Durban - A French-based exploration company has been granted a permit to extend its hunt for gas and oil in a massive chunk of sea off the KwaZulu-Natal coastline.
The Paris-based company, CGG Services, is understood to be exploring the seabed on behalf of Sasol Petroleum International and the Singapore-based Silver Wave Energy group.
The exploration company recently completed a seismic survey off the KZN coastline and now wants to start a second-round survey after being granted an exploration permit earlier this month by the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (Pasa).
The second-round CGG Services seismic survey will cover about 5 000km, within a much larger 80 000km2 exploration block which stretches from Margate in the south, to the Mozambique border in the north.
If the seismic survey is approved, the sea exploration will be restricted to an area 25km off the KZN coastline, extending almost 300km offshore.
Before the second survey bid begins, the exploration company is obliged to compile an environmental management plan to limit potential impacts on whale and turtle migration routes as well as fish and other marine species.
This is because the survey involves firing thousands of sound waves into the sea using airguns, to build up a geological profile of the seabed where oil and gas may be located.
According to a background information document published by the consultancy group CCA Environmental, members of the public have until tomorrow to register as interested parties if they want to comment on the proposed seismic survey.
The sound waves would be blasted to depths of up to 2.5km below the sea surface from a survey vessel which would also tow a string of acoustic receivers up to 9km long.
All cargo ships, fishing boats and other vessels would have to keep at least 500m away from the seismic survey vessel during the four-month exploration scheduled to begin in March.
Although the reconnaissance permit has been granted to CGG Services, information on the Pasa website clearly indicates that Sasol Petroleum International and Silver Wave Energy have joint permits for the same exploration area.
A map on the Pasa website also describes CGG’s involvement as a “multi-client survey”.
While Sasol Petroleum International is well known locally, much less information is available about Silver Wave Energy.
This Singapore-based company is chaired by businessman Min Min Aung.
The company has previously been granted permits to explore for oil and gas off the coast of Burma by the Myanmar military junta and also has connections to oil exploration companies in the Russian Republic of Kalmykia.
The chief executive of the French exploration company CGG is Jean-Georges Malcor, who began his career at the Thomson CSF group as an acoustic engineer and later held several management positions within the Thales group. - The Mercury
l For more information about the proposed seismic survey, go to www.ccaenvironmental.co.za or contact Eloise Costandius of CCA Environmental at [email protected] or telephone 021 4611 118.