Karoo shale gas: the 2011 exploration applications, the moratorium, and the 2017 reassessment
reference · consulted 2026-08-01
- Type
- reference
- Repository
- de Kock et al., 'Deflating the shale gas potential of South Africa's Main Karoo basin', South African Journal of Science 113(9/10), 2017; Karoo Space; Daily Maverick
- Consulted
- 2026-08-01
The citation as it was given
2011: Shell, Bundu and Falcon applied jointly for exploration rights over 123,450 km2 of the Karoo - Shell alone sought about 90,000-100,000 km2 in three blocks, and Falcon's 30,000 km2 took in Aberdeen, Jansenville and MERWEVILLE, which is a Koup town. February 2011 the Minister of Mineral Resources imposed a moratorium; it was lifted in September 2012. | 2017, AND THIS IS THE PART THAT MATTERS HERE: de Kock et al. re-examined the LEGACY SOEKOR CORES - SP1/69, WE1/66, SW1/67 - and concluded the Ecca Group is metamorphosed and OVERMATURE, with dolerite sills having caused catastrophic degassing, and little to no gas actually desorbing despite high organic carbon. They put the realistic figure at the LOWEST of the existing estimates, about 13 Tcf against claims of up to 485. | So the boreholes drilled in the 1960s to look for oil are the same cores pulled out fifty years later to say the gas is not there either. TERTIARY/secondary; the 2017 paper is peer reviewed and open access.
Kept verbatim. This project contradicts published genealogies and corrects a family's own oral tradition, so every claim has to be checkable by someone who was not in the room.