Activists prepare to fight offshore oil drilling

Environmental activists are poised to go to court in their battle to prevent exploration for oil and gas off the KZN coast. A Business Day report notes that a study by the CSIR has shown that SA has potential oil and gas reserves of between nine and 11 billion barrels respectively off its coast. To realise that potential, and to help the economy reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the government’s Operation Phakisa has set a target of sinking 30 exploration wells offshore in the next 10 years. Drilling for oil exploration is expected to get under way early in 2019 after yesterday’s announcement by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe in Cape Town that SA will relax a moratorium on gas and oil exploration licences implemented earlier in 2018. ‘This amendment will ensure that applications currently in our system are processed and granted,’ Mantashe told an oil and gas industry meeting.