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A multinational gas exploration joint venture (JV) submitted an "exploration right application" to the Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa) on Wednesday for an onshore shale-gas resource in the Karoo Basin, situated in the central region of South Africa.
The participants in the joint exploration venture include Sasol Petroleum International, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Sasol, Statoil ASA, of Norway, and Chesapeake Energy Corporation, of the US.
It was anticipated that the application would take 12 months to process.
Pasa, which is South Africa's agency for the promotion of onshore and offshore petroleum exploration, is empowered to issue exploration rights for an initial period of three years, which are renewable for a maximum of three additional two-year periods.
Should exploration prove successful, the JV could move to secure a production right for a period of 30 years, which was also renewable.
The Karoo basin programme would focus on the natural gas produced from shale, which is a type of sedimentary rock formed from clay. Shale gas has become an increasingly important source of natural gas in countries such as the US, and interest had also grown in Canada and Europe.
The partners noted in a joint statement that the Karoo basin had unproved shale gas potential and significant exploration efforts were still required to assess the resource.
