Government could authorise shale gas exploration before next year’s elections, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said.
“We want to move before the end of this administration,” Davies said at a briefing on Thursday, following Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting.
“We need to advance the work on taking a decision on shale gas exploration.”
Davies said Cabinet believed shale gas could be a vital component in South Africa’s quest for energy security, but at this stage the potential extent of local reserves remained unknown.
“Mossgas has a resource of about one trillion cubic metres of gas. The gas fields of Mozambique which have just opened have about a hundred trillion cubic metres of gas, and the shale gas deposit — some of the estimates would suggest that it is multiples of the Mozambican,” he said. Read on TimesLIVE >
Add Comment