South Africa government publishes fracking regulations


Issue 264 - 25 Oct 2013 | 4 minute read

The South African government has gazetted technical regulations for petroleum exploration and exploitation, the majority of which deal with hydraulic fracturing in the country, providing guidelines for environmental impact assessment, detailing equipment standards to ensure safe drilling and specifying that all operators must obtain a water licence before starting work. 
Interested parties have until 14 November to submit comments on the proposals, then the government will make any adjustments and the regulations will be promulgated. Three companies, Royal Dutch Shell, Challenger and Falcon, filed applications for exploration in the Karoo Basin before the government placed a moratorium on licensing in February 2011 (AE 221/12).

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