South African Farmers Win Fracking Challenge

A South African farming lobby group has mounted a successful legal challenge to government legislation paving the way for fracking.

There are believed to be substantial shale gas reserves in the arid Karoo region, and the Pretoria government is supporting exploration plans to better determine the viability of fracking. Farming group Agri SA opposes fracking, because of fears of environmental degradation and contamination of water supplies, and mounted a legal challenge to fracking legislation from the government’s Mineral Resources Department.

Agri SA issued a statement October 17: "The government's intention to proceed with a shale gas industry through hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking) was dealt a significant blow on Tuesday 17 October 2017, when the Eastern Cape High Court retrospectively set aside the 2015 decision by the Minister of Mineral Resources to enact Regulations for Petroleum Exploration and Production (commonly known as the Fracking Regulations)."

"The Fracking Regulations, which have been in place since June 2015, were regarded as a vital statutory requirement for the granting of shale gas exploration and production rights in South Africa."

The judgement noted concerns about fracking and shale gas development leading to air, soil and groundwater contamination - due to uncontrolled gas or fluid flows arising from blow-outs or spills, interception of naturally occurring fractures and fissures, well failures, corrosion of casings, cementing failure, leaking fracturing fluid and uncontrolled waste water discharge. The Mineral Resources Department was asked to comment, but did not respond.

Upstream group South African Oil and Gas Alliance’s CEO Niall Kramer however said the investigation into the viability of fracking should not be derailed by the judgement: "The economic possibilities of shale gas in South Africa are potentially massive but reserves cannot be quantified with certainty until we have drilled to get empirical relevant data."

"The Eastern Cape judgement is not a matter we were involved in. I think regulations that are both procedurally and substantively sound are needed, but the real focus now should to be on the enabling policy and legislation,” added the SAOGA chief.

"What fracking has done for the US economy - from energy security to GDP to jobs is huge, and in South Africa we could enjoy those cost and environmental benefits by bringing in LNG as a first meaningful step. In parallel we still need to establish the viability and extent of South African gas reserves. But we do need policy, law and regulations that are properly developed and sound, and we need responsible and experienced companies to explore within that framework," he added.

John Fraser