South Africa's Total Gas Reserves Estimated at 19.5 tcf

South Africa's recoverable gas reserves stand at around 19.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), a senior official told news agency Reuters Tuesday.

This includes reserves from both onshore shale and offshore gas fields.

According to Ompi Aphane, deputy director general for energy policy, it would take around a decade to significantly develop these gas resources.

"It requires significant evaluation activity, significant drilling for us to be able to quantify the gas more definitively and to also assess the economic case for the recovery of this gas," Aphane told a gas conference in Cape Town, reported Reuters.

Aphane said South Africa's recoverable gas resources were seen at around 9 tcf offshore through conventional drilling, 9 tcf in shale in the Karoo, a vast semi-desert wilderness stretching across the heart of South Africa, out of a potential 120 tcf resource and around 1.5 tcf from coal bed methane.