JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Eastern Cape Department of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEDEAT) has launched the two-year, R16-million, first phase of shale gas exploration across four of its district municipalities.

The department stated that R7.3-million of the project cost would be used for capital expenditure, with the funds having been provided in the Adjustment Budget tabled in the Eastern Cape Legislature last week.

The department’s shale gas exploration plans would extend across the Cacadu district municipality into which sections of the Little Karoo fell; the Amathole district municipality area, which essentially included the rural areas around Buffalo City; the Joe Gqabi district municipality, which included the towns of Aliwal North and Burgersdorp; and the Chris Hani district municipality, which included the towns of Cradock and Queenstown and stretched close to Graaff-Reinet in the west.

This initial phase of the project, which had been named Field Level Operation Water Watch, or FLOW2, would create a baseline for shallow groundwater reservoirs in the Eastern Cape ahead of shale gas exploitation, through a groundwater monitoring prorgramme with community-based participation to stimulate capacity building and entrepreneurship.

The DEDEAT said the aims of the first phase would be to determine what was not known about shale gas and the reserves, to conduct a forensic analysis of water and gas fracking in the Karoo to determine whether it was safe, cost-effective and beneficial, as well as to conduct an assessment of the technical skills needed by the provincial economy to increase the benefits of shale gas exploitation.

“The project will produce scientific data that will be applied in the work on shale gas exploration and will also be used to train artisans and scientists who will be better equipped to participate in shale gas exploration,” the department said.

The DEDEAT also pointed out that the project dovetailed with the initiative to make the Eastern Cape a new energy hub of South Africa that included a substantial number of wind farms and potentially a nuclear power plant.