It was a career defining moment that will live with lawyer Derek Light for the rest of his life: listening as Judge Gerald Bloem in the Grahamstown High Court, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, ruled that fracking in the Karoo region was unlawful. It was the punch Light had been waiting years to throw and it sent a battered and bruised government back to the drawing board.
&#8220;[The feeling] was overwhelming. You are viewed as a bunch of country people just making a noise. So when you go in a court, on an aspect that is nationally important and it&#8217;s got complex legal issues, and the court finds for you, you&#8217;re vindicated,&#8221; says Light.
This January marked the ninth anniversary when this quiet, unassuming, small-town lawyer and a handful of farmers challenged multi-million-dollar oil corporations and the South African government to stop hydraulic fracturing in their backyards.
&#8220;I always say to people I&#8217;m not a banner-waving green extremist, I&#8217;m a lawyer. What we want is a lawful process and our rights not to be unlawfully hinged… [we] are not just a bunch of country idiots behaving in an unreasonable fashion,&#8221; says Light.
<div id="attachment_35438" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35438" class=" wp-image-35438" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Derek-Light_JC-300x200.jpg" alt="Derek Light Fracking" width="500" height="333" />Derek Light (Photo by Jay Caboz)</div>
For Light, it has meant years slogging through snail-paced proceedings and stockpiling mountains of paperwork from his offices in Graaff-Reinet, situated in the heart of the Karoo.
&#8220;When they change a law in parliament in line with what you called for, then you start getting ticks on the box and saying the last eight years have been worth it,&#8221; he says.
This was all because of three areas of concern the farmers had with the fracking regulations.
&#8220;The obvious issue farmers had was with the potential impact of the environment that shale gas development, that hydraulic fracturing, might have. The second was that the legislation was inadequate to cater for such a development, so we were concerned there was a lack of legislation and regulation. Then thirdly, and this is interconnected, we were concerned that there was a lack of knowledge on the process, a lack of knowledge on the receiving environment and therefore an inability to determine the potential impact,&#8221; says Light.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/07/01/fracking-future-fades/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Fracking Future Fades</a>
Light and the 400 Karoo landowners won their court case on October 17 because government failed to follow its own law. The Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) went beyond their authority and published fracking regulations relating to environmental and water usage matters, when it did not have the power to do so, the court found.
&#8220;It will mean the ministers of mineral resources, environmental affairs and water affairs will have to go back and do their job properly,&#8221; says Light.
It also means another vital lifeline for anti-fracking farmer Doug Stern, who has been farming sheep near Graaff-Reinet for the past 45 years, and was the first to lay the case against government.
&#8220;Derek doesn&#8217;t get the accolades he deserves. That man has virtually singlehandedly handled this anti-fracking campaign in my view. He&#8217;s been backed by strong businessmen, but he&#8217;s been able to gather a very strong team to supply him with information that he can use very effectively. Thanks to him largely we&#8217;ve been able to keep these cowboys at bay and protect the environment,&#8221; says Stern.
&#8220;We found so many loopholes in the regulations that government put forward that we felt we had to fight it. It was a significant victory that sends government back to the drawing board and forces them to relook at their regulations. In that time we are buying time and hoping that research into renewable energy will advance at a rapid rate.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_35439" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35439" class=" wp-image-35439" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Doug-Stern-200x300.jpg" alt="Doug Stern farmer fracking" width="300" height="450" />Doug Stern (Photo by Jay Caboz)</div>
Stern, who is also the president of Agri Eastern Cape, a private association representing more than 3,000 farm owners in the province, was one of the initial farmers to stand up against fracking in 2009.
&#8220;Who knows what damage would be done if we had allowed them to do exploratory drilling? If you look at the statistics, at the animal stock numbers of South Africa, a third of those are found in this province. We are an agriculture province through and through. If we start allowing industries like mining to impact on our environment we stand to lose a lot of our animal producing country, which will then impact again on our food security.&#8221;
Stern is one of the few farmers in the area to have seen the impact of fracking firsthand. He went to Pennsylvania, United States, as a guest of anti-fracking groups.
&#8220;My experiences in America were horrifying and I knew we couldn&#8217;t allow this to happen in this country. We had to make sure that they weren&#8217;t granted any exploratory lisenses.&#8221;
This is not the first time Light has stepped into the ring. In 2011, he and the farmers raised concerns and convinced government to place a moratorium on fracking in the Karoo. This led to government setting up a multi-disciplinary task team to investigate the potential impacts and benefits of hydraulic fracturing.
The report identified significant gaps in research before regulations of exploration of shale gas could proceed. Light and the farmers then called for a full Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) before any further exploration could begin. Farmers claimed there were too many unknowns around the impact of fracking on Karoo&#8217;s highly sensitive aquifer system from which boreholes are part of their primary water resource.
Nevertheless, government, in August 2012, chose to lift the moratorium and allow exploration of shale gas, but that they would not allow hydraulic fracturing to take place unless it was properly regulated.
&#8220;Government was concerned that if it did not allow the process to proceed, it could be a lost opportunity,&#8221; says Light.
&#8220;The sad part of the policy decision was that they took a decision notwithstanding the fact that they were uninformed, which we joined issue with. We welcomed the fact that they wanted to revisit the legislation, but we joined issue with the decision that they continued to proceed under circumstances under where they couldn&#8217;t take an informed decision.&#8221;
It would take government another three years, until June 2015, to submit the next round of regulations. By this time, an important amendment was made to South African law in June 2013, under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act No. 28 of 2002 (MPRDA) and in line with the National Environmental Management Act of 2008. This amendment allowed Light and the farmers to win their case with the DMR, which they say overstepped its authority.
&#8220;Unfortunately it was an attempt by the minister to publish regulations that were all encompassing, it dealt with exploration and production and all other potential impacts to do with fracking,&#8221; says Light.
To make matters worse, when the DMR published its regulations, it did so without an SEA from the Department of Environmental Affairs. This joint operation produced a 165-page document detailing the uncertainties of fracking and took two years to complete.
&#8220;A team of 200 specialists authored work, peer reviewed by 19 international specialists… In each chapter, the scientists made a list of scientific unknowns which the science militated against proper decision making,&#8221; says Light.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2014/10/01/want-fracking-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: I Want A Fracking Future</a>
Light says one of the recommendations of this report was that at least 52% of the areas in question could not be fracked because of their sensitivity and more importantly that no water was be used in the Karoo because it was a limited resource.
&#8220;Also, what was said to be a massive economic benefit bringing 400,000 jobs to the country, the report said otherwise. It said fewer than 3,000 jobs would be created and of that only 900 locally,&#8221; says Light.
In the meantime, the government, through the Department of Science and Technology, also commissioned a report to determine South Africa&#8217;s technical readiness to support a shale gas industry. This was published in 2016 in partnership with the Academy of Science of South Africa and concluded, “much needs to be done to put in place a clear legislative environment and a rigorous regulatory and monitoring structure which will ensure that operators, in using their exploration and production lisences, apply best-practice technologies that are fully compliant with the rules and regulations governing the industry.”
&#8220;The good news is that there is research being done. It is clear that the initial reserves, which were stated by the oil companies and their advisors, and therefore government, have been overstated. Therefore the cost of producing shale gas, particularly in the context of the Karoo geology, is not viable,&#8221; says Light.
<div id="attachment_35441" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35441" class=" wp-image-35441" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Karoo_JC-20-e1519808833674-300x200.jpg" alt="Karoo fracking" width="500" height="333" />The Karoo (Photo by Jay Caboz)</div>
While the fight for the Karoo is well underway, the fight for national regulation is just about to begin. It is ironic that while research, millions of dollars and time have been spent to protect the Karoo from fracking, it may proceed in any case on a national level.
This is because while there is a moratorium over the Karoo, this does not apply to the rest of the country. Beyond these borders, farmers now face similar cases where applications have been lodged by oil and gas companies for petroleum and gas exploration in the KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Gauteng and North West provinces.
Although the applications do not specify fracking, Light is concerned with the rising number of applications.
&#8220;Which is what we predicted would happen. If there was shale gas in this country, and if they did allow shale gas development on well-field situations on large reserves, it would cover probably 60% of this land’s surface,&#8221; says Light.
Sungu Sungu Gas, in 2015, placed bids to explore in KwaZulu-Natal and Free State in an area 565,000ha and was halted in 2016 in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on the grounds it did not consult land owners adequately. In July 2017, it withdrew its exploration application completely.
In May 2017, the Pietermaritzburg High Court ordered Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa to stop all exploration in an 8,000km2 area after it was found that the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) had flouted the procedure process. This is just a small part of their applications, which stretch across five provinces and 78,876km2.
&#8220;What the general public and government must realize is that agriculture is the cornerstone of their food security program and we can&#8217;t jeopardize that in any way whatsoever… Even the politicians have to eat. Everybody has to eat,&#8221; says Stern.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2015/09/01/power-people-people/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Power For The People By The People</a>
Meanwhile, back in the Karoo, Mosebenzi Zwane, the former minister of DMR, told Reuters they are studying the court order.
&#8220;We remain committed [to shale gas exploration]. We will study the outcome of the court and decide where we go,&#8221; says Zwane. &#8220;We are talking about first fracking licenses being granted in 2019 if all goes well.&#8221;
The rematch could begin later this year, as the DMR was granted leave to appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal and have filed notice to appeal.
If unsuccessful, the government could face the arduous task of drafting new regulations in line with the High Court ruling, again.
&#8220;What we have fought for since 2009 is to achieve a better legislative framework with better regulation. That process is not complete and we will continue to ensure that if shale gas development ever occurs, then it occurs lawfully and it occurs with proper regulation in force,&#8221; says Light.
&#8220;You need stamina. It&#8217;s a long process,&#8221; he says with a smile.
One thing that living in the Karoo has taught Light is how to box smart and wait for the right moment to deliver a stunning right hook.
<div id="attachment_35440" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35440" class=" wp-image-35440" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Karoo_JC-4-e1519808674871-300x200.jpg" alt="Karoo fracking" width="500" height="333" />The Karoo (Photo by Jay Caboz)</div>
<h1 style="text-align: center;">A Fracking Fight Since 2009</h1>
It started in 2009, when Econometrix, South Africa’s largest independent macroeconomic consulting firm, believed there was 485 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The government and energy companies took this as gospel to support their case to open up the Karoo for fracking.
They pegged the Karoo as the $100-billion answer to Africa&#8217;s energy crisis, saying there would be enough gas to make it the world&#8217;s fifth largest resource – enough to fuel the country’s economy for up to 30 years and create thousands of jobs.
No one really knows how much shale gas there actually is. Researchers have only begun to explore its potential and exploration can take up to five years to conclude.

No Fracking Way

It’s a hard life for farmers who have lived for generations in the Karoo, South Africa’s vast expanse of nothing. Every day, they fight cutting winds and soaring temperatures in bone-dry valleys to nurture their stock. To the visitor, the Karoo is a barren place between Cape Town and Johannesburg. Here the communities are small, Twitter is scarce and there are more goats than people. Soon there could be more rumbling trucks than goats.
This is all because of a mining method called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It’s been hailed a savior of the United States (US) economy, during the 2008 recession, making it one of the largest producers of natural gas in the world. It is now on its way to South Africa, because the government and oil and gas companies believe, beneath the Karoo, lies an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas; enough to fuel the country’s economy for up to 20-30 years. It could also bring $100 billion and thousands of jobs.
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For some, like Harry Memese, who grew up in the small town of Graaff Reinet, in the heart of the Karoo, the sound of thousands of trucks full of gas grinding along the highways could be music to his ears.
“I have worked as a petrol cashier for eight years, there is no job other than that in Graaff Reinet. The people are suffering. There are 30 youths here where I live, and only two of them are working in my street. Fracking is going to help the people get jobs. If you look around our townships, like here in Graaff Reinet, and the rest of the Eastern Cape, people are not working. Fracking is supposed to bring in 300,000 more jobs. At least there is something that people can earn earn,” says the 33-year-old.
Grey hair, from a life harder than the land he grew up in, makes Memese look older than he is. His life is a struggle and the $420-a-month he earns is barely enough to feed his wife, children and younger brother. The promise of fracking could mean a new lease of life for his family. He dreams of seeing his 19-year-old brother Ayanda one day qualifying as an electrical engineer on a fracking well.
No one really knows how much shale gas is in the Karoo. When estimates emerged in 2010, Econometrix, South Africa’s largest independent macro-economic consulting firm, believed there was 485 tcf, enough to make South Africa the fifth largest producer in the world.
But these days the figure has been downsized. Another task team set by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), in September 2012, spearheaded by the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA), believes there is a mere 30 tcf.
No matter the figure, companies want to explore. Shell, the largest bidder in the Karoo, wants to frack 90,000 square kilometers &#8211; the size of Sierra Leone.
“It’s a potential resource. It certainly can be a big player. Scientists initially thought it was 485 tcf but the latest from the same people is 370 tcf. If you listen to petroleum companies, it could be fractions of that. To put things into scale, PetroSA has been running on 1 tcf for their gas to liquid plant in Mossel Bay. The challenging thing for South Africa is the environmental impact and the regulations,” says Chris Bredenhann, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ oil and gas advisory leader in Africa.
Bredenhann thinks natural gas may have captured investor interest, but Africa has its challenges. In his company’s 2014 Africa oil and gas review, companies operating in Africa face fraud, corruption, theft, poor infrastructure and a lack of skills. Investors are also concerned about regulatory uncertainty.
“Some key players have delayed or canceled projects until further clarity can be sought in their respective jurisdictions as they cannot move forward with doubts given the long-term nature of the needed investments,” says Bredenhann.
According to the report, Africa has proven natural gas reserves of 502 tcf, with 90% of the continent’s annual production of 6.5 tcf coming from Nigeria, Libya, Algeria and Egypt. China has an estimated 1,115 tcf, the largest supply of shale gas. With African countries like Mozambique looking to exploit reserves, the competition for sales and investment is tough.
“There is also the fact there is tight international competition. Asia, who is the main consumer of gas, is being fed by the United States and the likes of Australia who managed to set up their operations far faster than expected. It means companies operating out of Tanzania and Mozambique, who have met various delays in operations, will lose out as the price decreases in a competitive market,” says Bredenhann.
Falling prices could spell disaster for the up-and-coming countries looking to sell their surplus gas.
“The sentiment of Africa being open is applicable to South Africa. Total, Chevron and Shell have made investments offshore. If you had this conversation five years ago this would have been a different conversation,” says Bredenhann.
The only certainty for those who want to frack, is that they have a fight on their hands.
<h3>Rallying The Cheques</h3>
In a year, the fighting fund for farmers in the Karoo has swollen. 
A sure sign that the gloves are off.
Like his fellow 3,000 farmers, Dickie Ogilvie won’t let fracking vie without a fight. Ogilvie gave up teaching to help his wife, Colleen, take over her brother’s farm, Doorndraai, 100 kilometers south west of Graaff Reinet. His fears have led him to pledge R3 for every hectare on his 14,000 hectare farm to fight fracking in court. Most farmers across the Karoo are as trenchant as him.
“Some guys have given a lump sum payment. Most of the other moneys are per hectare basis, the pledge varies from R1 a hectare to R10 ($1), depending how strongly a farmer feels.  There is a lot of money to fight this if it goes to litigation process. Farmers have realized now how serious this can be,” says Ogilvie.
“Our resolution from the Aberdeen district is dire. I don’t believe they understand that if something goes wrong the Karoo is finished. You cannot rectify the water contamination, once it’s been contaminated it’s over, we will have to move off. It’s not only farms; the towns rely on underground water. My small little family can make a plan, but we are talking about whole communities in towns. It’s a huge problem, no answers are given, there is so much uncertainty.”
The fierce litigation between big business and the Karoo’s landowners has been brewing since 2009, when fracking explorations were stopped to allow for regulations. Landowners locked horns with government over the lack of consultation and what they call flawed laws and uninformed environmental assessments.
Their lobbying has seen some results, says Derek Light, the small-town lawyer from Graaff Reinet. The small offices he works in have been consumed by fracking for three years. Light even took a cell phone when he went for hip surgery so he wouldn’t miss anything. He represents hundreds of landowners, including millionaire Johann Rupert, the second richest man in Africa, who lives around the corner.
In September, four years after the first applications were submitted, baseline water testing began. The study, researched by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and financed by the Eastern Cape provincial government, looks at the Karoo’s underground water system.
“Baseline testing is not done overnight, it’s a long process that takes two to three years. The timing of it has been poor, and it is something the oil companies should have done in their environmental management plan process, which they failed to do. It’s now being done by the taxpayer. The government should have had this information at their disposal when they first made their decisions on the whole process,” says Light.
He adds that the government jumped the gun. Drafts, issued in 2013, were flawed and focused on regulating fracking while forgetting about the mining operations around it, says Light.
“Drilling in South Africa is not regulated at all. Shell and other companies feed off the fact that there are few documented cases of contamination from the actual fracking process. Because the wealth of contamination comes from the other process, you can’t divorce the one from the other.”
Another loud and stringent voice against fracking is that of Jonathan Deal, CEO of Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG). Strangely enough, he didn’t know about fracking until he read a news article in 2011 when Rupert was speaking out against it.
“I began to investigate and attended the Shell public meetings. It was very clear to me that Shell was trying to control the meetings. There was a very specific aim in those meetings and it wasn’t to tell the truth as far as I was concerned,” says Deal.
From his 40,000-hectare Eco-farm near Montagu, in the Karoo, Deal has been calling on the Presidency, the Public Protector and gas companies to revise their actions before fracking takes place. He’s not alone; Julius Kleynhans, the Head of Environmental Affairs at the NGO AfriForum, has declared it will back TKAG financially should it go
to court.
“It is the balance of convenience. If companies and the state have invested enormous amounts of money and the public sits and watches what happens and wait for everything to be built and then goes and complains. It’s very difficult for a court to literally throw its investments away.”
“If something goes wrong with a fracking well ten years later and those chemicals migrate 30 kilometers away, even if a farmer ends up with polluted water, what chance has he got of proving that it was from that well&#8230; if people get sick from air and water pollution, like what is being happening in the United States, who is going to pay for it? The state is; the people who pay tax. Not the companies that have shut down their operations when they have moved on somewhere else,” says Deal.
It’s not just a Karoo problem, says Deal.
“If fracking starts in this country and the gas reserves are there. We will see the technology of fracking march across this country just like it did in the United States. Geologically speaking the Karoo basin is where the gas bearing shale is thought to reside, and that extends into Gauteng and parts of Mpumalanga. In fact it extends out of the northern borders of South Africa.”
Despite plans to halt explorations until proper research is completed, the government remains adamant it will go ahead and be a game changer.
“New regulations should be released in September, but we don’t yet know what they contain. All of this has happened without consultation. It seems what will happen are inadequate regulations will be passed, with inadequate consultation. We are then faced with serious decisions where we go from there. If the regulations are unlawful, that may have to be challenged in the Constitutional Court. It seems, from the ministers announcements, hot off the heels of the new regulations will be the issuing of licenses which seems to indicate government has already taken a decision on those, which should not be granted because they don’t comply with the new laws,” says Light.
The impact of exploration could be catastrophic, says Deal, especially since companies refuse to disclose the chemical composition of the additives. Chemical additives make up 1% of the 20 million liters used for a well. On one pad there can be 32 wells.
“With exploration, the same risks are there, they have to frack to see if it’s there. Don’t come to this country and look for secrecy privileges. Don’t come and try hide behind commercial interests to hide the mix of chemicals, this is not America,” says Deal.
“The minute these licenses are issued, these corporates are going to carry on with what they want to do anyway. It’s going to be challenged. People are well aware of it. The minute those licenses are issued, they will be challenged,” says Ogilvie.
Landowners seem to be putting their money where their mouth is. One wonders what people across Africa, who don’t have money will do.
<h3>What’s The Problem?</h3>
Independent geologist, Wlady Altermann, believes fracking fears are full of hot air.
Imagine a rock with thousands of pockets. Then imagine you have to drill, thousands of times, to release the gas from these pockets. This is what the Karoo looks like underground and the amount of drilling needed could make fracking costly, says Wlady Altermann, a geologist at the University of Pretoria.
“All the knowledge of these compartments and the distribution of pockets are very poor. [The Karoo] would require a very good geophysical investigation. After that, the drill hole positions need to be drilled to investigate the properties of the rock, the stability of the composition and the wealth of the gas. Only after that, can a decision be made as to the wealth of the shale gas,” says Altermann.
The German- born professor knows a thing or two about rocks. Apart from studying them since he was a child, Altermann spent years studying rocks from Mars. Space travel was out of the question so Altermann flew across the globe and has been studying mineral deposits in South Africa since the 1980s.
Altermann, now the Kumba-Exxaro Chair in Geodynamics of Ore Deposits at the university, believes that fracking is harmless if it’s done properly.
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“The misconceptions are basically based on poor information. It comes from the direct comparison with the United States, which I think is not comparable. Secondly, it comes from the perceptions that the surface and the shallow subsurface have something to do with shale gas deposits. Shale gas deposits are much deeper.”
“The fracking itself is such a tiny part of the entire process. It’s not the dangerous part of the process. The dangerous part of the process is the later methods of production. Fracking itself, I think, it’s the wrong discussion,” says Altermann.
Water contamination by drilling through the Karoo’s aquifers, 300 meters below the surface, is also unlikely says Altermann, because the distance between the underground water and the shale gas is far.
“The shale in the United States is at much shallower levels. Between 1,000-1,500 meters. The deeper you go, the less the risk of contamination. The pressure in the ceiling holds the gas better. The chance to contaminate groundwater through that type of production is so low; you really must act like an idiot to do this. It’s not impossible but if it’s done properly, there’s no problem,” he says.
The fracking process has made significant technological steps since it began 70 years ago, says Altermann. Wells can be spaced further apart because drilling horizontally can stretch for 5 kilometers. Ten years ago, that same reach was a kilometer.
The risk lies with the waste after fracking. Companies in the US have been guilty of reusing this water to save costs, instead of disposing of it.
“This is what causes most of the problems. In other countries, it is forbidden, there are environmental laws. That should be avoided in South Africa as well, controlled in a way that you can be sure nothing happens,”
says Altermann.
Natural gas is a greener fossil fuel than coal, says Altermann.
“South Africa’s energy demand is expected to increase by 60% up to 2050. Coal cannot supply it; if coal supplied it we would sit in darkness and not see our beautiful sunsets under the African sun. At today’s state of technology, the best way to mitigate climate change and CO2 emissions, the cheapest thing technically is to switch from coal to gas combustion. It reduces CO2 emissions by 50%. It’s a much more effective way of producing energy,”
says Altermann.
“People talk about fracking and groundwater; no one realizes that actually in many areas where groundwater is scarce, where there is not enough water to supply the population, fracking is used to extract groundwater. They frack the rocks, the aquifer, without chemicals with just water and sand and crack the rocks, so that water can flow out the cracks easier. It is used by many countries especially in sub-Saharan Africa.”
According to the professor, fracking could change the face of South Africa and not cause too much worry.
<h3>Last Gasp For Eden</h3>
It’s a small corner of the Karoo: a corridor of private land that stretches 300,000 hectares from the Camdeboo National Park, in Graaff Reinet, east to the Mountain Zebra National Park. It took 66 farmers over three years to buy into this project that promises a Garden of Eden teeming with wildlife. It could become known as the last piece of untouched land in the Karoo if fracking begins.
“The first meeting in Graaff Reinet was a little tense. I think a lot of the landowners thought we were going to attempt a big land purchase and buy out hundreds of thousands of hectares. Also, I think they were a bit worried that we were going to tell them what they had to do on their own land. Once this was clarified, there was little problem,” says Matthew Norval, the Director of the Conservation Programme at the Wilderness Foundation.
The corridor project is the brainchild of Norval, in collaboration with South Africa National Parks (SANParks). He wants to create a reserve for future generations.
“The farmers in this area have looked after the land for many generations, some of them are third and fourth generation. The reason you can build a natural corridor in that region is because the land has been so well looked after and is still in good condition and there is a strong affinity from the farmers who own that land,” says Norval.
The application is with the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa.
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“Fracking raised its head at almost the same time we started working in that area. There is no doubt that it influenced the way we worked and the way some of the landowners decided how to collaborate with us. I think fracking hit a lot of the landowners, sort of right between the eyes. They suddenly realized that properties that had been in their families for generations were now under threat. It was possible their land would get damaged and their children or their children’s children wouldn’t be able to make a livelihood from farming. You have to bear in mind its prime natural rangeland grazing for sheep and cattle,” says Norval.
“I think it would be near impossible to rehabilitate the Karoo after fracking. In some areas, to a layman it may look like gravel plain. Somebody that doesn’t understand the intricacies of that ecosystem might just assume you can level it and there you go. But it’s not like that.”
“This is our last gasp. Never mind rhino, we’re losing lion; we’re losing pangolin by the ton. When it comes to land, the opportunity to build corridors and create landscapes that are going to have some relevance in the future, this is our last chance. ”
Over to the minister.

I Want A  Fracking Future

When you walk off the main street in Graaff-Reinet and into Derek Light’s office he has to talk to you over a mountain of files. The small-town lawyer, who is taking on a number of the world’s largest energy companies, apologizes for the mess and very carefully moves his pile of lever-arch folders onto the floor. Scribbled on the spines with blue marker pens are the names Falcon Oil and Gas, Bundu Oil and Gas, and Shell.
“I have another eight cabinets full, all to do with fracking,” says Light.
It could have been a quieter twilight of his professional life in the Karoo, when he moved back to his hometown to raise his two children. It could have been measured days of drawing farm-owners’ contracts and settling disputes over wandering sheep. Now he has to tackle big businesses and its threat to turn his backyard into one giant fracking well pad.
“The problem is that the process of explorative fracking is not normal. It’s invasive and has the potential to destroy the environment,” says Light.
“Things like land, air and water are emotional subjects. In Britain, we’ve seen people super-gluing themselves to fences and being incarcerated for wanting to prevent the development going ahead. Those are extreme conditions. People act in that way because they don’t have any other way of resisting. They don’t have the means of accessing the courts and employing the scientists and economists,” he says.
According to Light, fracking will change the face of the Karoo.
“If the reserves are there and you go into well fields, you won’t recognize the country. You will have well pads every 5 kilometers in every direction. You will have flaring, false lighting, masses of vehicles on the road. The air quality will deteriorate. The effect is massive.”
He disagrees with the suggestion by Shell and others that it won’t.
“They will be using multi-well pads, with 30 wells on one site. The point is that rock formation needs to be targeted as broadly as possible; if you can only drill horizontally you would have exhausted the rock within 2.5km. You would have to establish another well 5km away.”
The legal costs to fight fracking have been daunting.  Until November 2011, Light was by himself with hardly a budget at all. It was light at the beginning of the tunnel for the lawyer.
“Now there is a big team of councillors, scientists and environmentalists. It would not have been possible without the help of  Africa’s third richest man, Johann Rupert. He made it possible to get the expertise of people to take on the biggest companies in the world like Shell,” he says.
The lawyer has no problem taking on the big guns of the fossil fuel industry. He believes that if you are standing on the right side of the law you can take on anyone, no matter how deep their pockets are.
Light also put his own money on the line.
“I know as a professional you have to be objective, but in this case it is my whole community that is being threatened. I want to keep what we have here, it’s a great environment to bring your family up in and it should never be destroyed,” he says.
“I try not to get caught in that sort of emotional debate because it clouds your own judgment. But I can only achieve what I have set out to achieve with the support of individuals. We have just been very lucky that we have sufficient access so far.”
One of his biggest worries is not enough people know about fracking to make an informed decision. According to Light, most people in the cities do not understand the impact this will have on the countryside.
“I remember about two years ago, of all people interviewed in the urban areas, only 50% knew about fracking and of them 15% knew what fracking really was. So I think it’s a question of if it doesn’t affect you nobody cares.”
“It’s moving as quickly as the oil and gas companies are allowed to move. And we’ve said no. We didn’t make the same mistake that the United States made. They allowed it to happen and then tried to regulate it,” he says.
At a time when most people are looking to retire, he looks set to become a household name.
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<h4>The world refuses to frack down</h4>
From London to Perth people have been fighting police, clashing with truck drivers and super gluing themselves to fences all for the same reason—fracking. In South Africa the debate is still in its infancy. Fracking in Australia, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and the United States has provoked violence. In France it was banned completely, Tunisia soon followed.
One of the most violent protests came in a small town in West Sussex, Balcombe in Britain. British oil and gas exploration firm Cuadrilla, built a test well to take samples of rock.
Protestors super glued themselves to fences. The 1,000 protestors also set up camp by the road to the site. In August, police moved in to evict them and it was reported to have cost tax payers £3.7 million ($5.8 million).
In September, Cuadrilla announced it would suspend operations until a new planning application had been approved. Its drilling rig was moved to look for oil elsewhere.
“The drilling rig and associated equipment will be removed from site in September and testing equipment will not be mobilized to site until planning consent has been granted,” says Francis Egan, CEO of Cuadrilla in a statement.
On the other side of the coin, in North Dakota, United States, oil-fracking is seen as a boon. From 2005 to 2011, it helped the state’s economy grow from $4.4 billion to $30.5 billion. Eight thousand wells, producing more than 820,000 barrels a day was just the start. These wells are expected to increase to 50,000.
Among the landowners of North Dakota, 2,000 new millionaires are made every year, according to Bruce Gjovig, founder of the Center for Innovation at the University of North Dakota. Oil royalties range from $50,000 to $100,000 a month.
The quest for oil has drawn in thousands from across America to towns such as Watford City, which has grown from 1,700 to 10,000, according estimates in March.
The fracking revolution has been bitter sweet for some. Many long-term, low income residents have been priced out of their homes through property price rises. The population boom has led to overused roads, polluted streams and created the worst aspects of urbanization.
In South Africa, residents of the Karoo are the latest to join the battle. According to Julius Kleynhans, head of environmental affairs at AfriForum, the biggest problem is only one in five South Africans have heard about fracking.
“At the moment the government is doing nothing. It’s refusing to address the public outcry. They are just power drilling their wants through,” he says.
“Why would they care if the Karoo was contaminated? What they were told was the value of getting this energy game-breaker gas was far more important than the value of the Karoo. The fact that the Eastern Cape has a third of the country’s livestock population; I cannot tell you how important this part of the country plays in production. We also produce more wool, mohair and ostriches than any other part of the country and 25% of the citrus in the country,” says local farmer Doug Stern.
You can be sure this time next year many more Africans will know what fracking is and how it could change their lives.
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Light At The Beginning  Of The Tunnel

A cold gusty wind whistles through the branches of hundreds of thousands of dust-weary bone-dry four-inch high scrub. This is the Karoo, southern South Africa’s desert, which has changed little in 250 million years. The valley creaks to its own song, carried on the wind through rusted windmills and crags of prehistoric rock.
These days, a new tune is in the air—fracking. Thousands of miles away big business rubs its hands at the prospect of drawing $100 billion (R1 trillion) revenue, within three decades, out of this land. Standing against this, are 3,000 landowners pledging millions for their fight.
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An estimated 485 trillion cubic feet of shale gas could be buried 4,5km below the Karoo, according to Econometrix, South Africa’s largest independent macro-economic consulting firm. The only way to get at it is through the so-called invasive mining underground, which has been used for no more than 15 years.
Farmers in the Karoo say this will destroy their livelihood. Johann Rupert, Africa’s second richest entrepreneur, who now lives in retirement on a farm in the area, is one of them.  Rupert made billions selling luxury consumer goods for Richemont and under his South African-based company Remgro. He has been shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars, says Derek Light, a small-town lawyer from Graaff-Reinet defending his birthplace, in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.
“The bulk of the cost we have incurred so far has gone into research, to equip ourselves and to be informed. We have hired some of the best scientists to understand each step of the exploration, so that we can understand every aspect of the process. We won’t go to court unless absolutely necessary. It’s not first prize to us,” he says.
Thousands of farmers across the Karoo are following the billionaire’s example. Fifty five-year-old Dickie Ogilvie, who farms mohair near Aberdeen, has pledged R3 [R1=$0.10] for every hectare on his 14,000 hectare farm.
“Some guys have given a lump sum payment. Most of the other money is per hectare basis, from 20c to 50c up to R2-R3 depending on how strongly they feel about fracking. It might sound like a lot of money, but it’s actually nothing. If I lose my property, at the end of the day it’s not money at all, we’ve lost everything,” says Ogilvie.
“But how effective at the end of the day is it going to be? Are we going to be able to stop the workings of a huge company like Shell? Have we got the finances to do it? Or are we just delaying the inevitable? We might as well just close our doors and move on. Lord alone, help us if it does happen. My big concern, particularly in the Aberdeen district, is the apathy of a lot of the farmers. There are many who have pledged, there are many who haven’t and they are actually not even interested,” he says.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves drilling underground and pumping a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals to crack shale rock to release the gas.
Among the companies targeting this resource is Shell. They want to frack an area that is larger than Sierra Leone, an area of 90,000km squared. Jan Willem Eggink, the man charged by Shell to find viable oil and gas in Africa, believes if fracking is done correctly, it won’t harm the environment.
“I understand that people are concerned about it. If I was living in the Karoo, I would be concerned if Shell came to my farm and started drilling on it. I feel if I could talk to farmers in the Karoo and tell them what we planned to do, in most cases they would say ‘okay I now understand it and I am significantly less concerned’… What is true, I must admit, is there have been cases of gas leaking where wells have not been sealed off properly. You need to seal and test them properly.”
Eggink thinks fracking could be a game changer for the country. The South African government thinks so too. They estimate that fracking will create 700,000 jobs and make the country self-sufficient. Right now 70% of its gas is imported.
“The most logical one [use for gas] for South Africa, would be to convert it to power… I’m not saying gas is the only answer. Our view is that South Africa needs more energy than it can lay its hands on… The point is, if you operate at high standards, which Shell intends to do, then there is no reason why your water would be contaminated. You need good companies in place to operate this,” says Eggink.
Many farmers disagree.
Doug Stern farms sheep near Graaff-Reinet and has seen the damage first hand. He went to Pennsylvania, United States, as a guest of anti-fracking groups.
“The sealant material the industry will use can only consist of steel and cement. They are their only options. There are between two and 32 holes on each well pad. Assume that every well is drilled perfectly. However, with the Karoo being on an artesian formation, there is huge upward pressure from the subsurface. All of this over time is guaranteed to corrode the seals under the exerted pressure. The cement is going to crumble and the steal is going to rust, releasing impurities into our water and into the air. This will destroy our environment. You can do without gas, you can do without electricity but you cannot do without water. It’s the stuff of life,” says Stern.
“The amount of energy and effort that has to go into this particular resource, given the estimated lifespan, is disproportionate…we’ve already used up the gold reserves in this country. One of the aspects in mineral exploration that I was glad to leave behind was the sense that, while one is involved, you are party to the pillaging of the planet. My sense of reality, says it [fracking] ultimately will happen. It would be a sad day and the people in authority of this country to should be indicted if they enable it to happen before there are cast iron guarantees,” says Jeremy Harper, who worked for six years as an exploration geophysicist and whose farm, SandKraal, is in the fracking zone.
By spending his days buried in files, Light, the lawyer, has stalled fracking for five years. In 2008, one farmer objected to proposals by Sunset Energy, now Light represents thousands of farmers.
“If they had not objected, the government would have gone ahead with fracking in 2009, in a totally unregulated fashion. We wouldn’t even be here. The real issue is whether fracking can go ahead and if the country has the capacity and the infrastructure for it? Right now I don’t see it. So we will keep opposing them until it is safe,” says Light.
In September 2012, South Africa lifted its 18-month moratorium on fracking. The licenses have not been issued a year later, but look set to before South Africa’s elections next year, according to Rob Davies, the trade and industry minister of South Africa.
Matt Ash, director of Norton Rose Fulbright Sub-Saharan Africa energy, says the South African government wants gas to play a big part in its National Development Plan (NDP) for 2030, which estimates that the country will need 41,346MW of new power. The country currently has half that capacity with 33,000MW.
The controversy over fracking, according to Ash, stems from the country not having any fracking regulations.
“Under the present framework, a landowner is obliged to give mineral rights holder’s free and unfretted access to the land without compensation for the unhindered exploration of mineral resources. However, only a land owner can apply for rezoning of property appropriate for the mining activity concerned. The land owner can refuse to rezone on environmental grounds.”
According to Light, government decided to forego a strategic environmental impact assessment (EIA), a standard global practice. Light is worried that if gas is found, then the company has the right to drill, without proper regulations in place.
“Currently in South Africa there is no drilling legislation. The mining industry in the country has a shocking track record. There is a lack of observance of the laws as they are,” says Light.
Also in question is whether gas companies will pay for any damage to the environment.
“When these companies move on in forty or fifty years’ time there needs to be something to recover the environment. You have a fund to restore the land. There is inadequate financial provision made for rehabilitation. Inevitably for this country, the taxpayer has cleaned up the mess. The mining companies will spend money on what earns them money. They are not inclined to spend money on something that doesn’t generate income,” says Light.
Eggink says Shell will put money aside to repair the land.
This is unlikely to placate protestors. According to Light, there are still many more questions: Who will regulate fracking? How can gas be shipped out without an existing pipeline? Will the environment be able to cope with thousands of trucks grinding through the dust of the Karoo? Where will the millions of liters of water come from?
There are signs that the government is starting to listen to the worries of the farmers, says Light.
In September, Edna Molewa, the minister of water and environmental affairs, released a notice to declare fracking a controlled water activity.
“It means companies wanting to explore shale gas deposits under the Karoo will first have to get a water-use licence. Their water usage can be regulated,” says Light.
According to Eggink, it’s going to take 10 years to explore the area.  Shell will take two years to complete an EIA, once they have been given their licence. Most of the tests can be done above ground, he says.
“We would like to start drilling and demonstrating to the people of South Africa that these wells can be done in an environmentally acceptable way,” says Eggink.
Light says the farmers will push for fracking to be regulated more tightly, before a drill touches the ground.
“Our position is that until the gaps have been filled, we shouldn’t go ahead with operations… our plan is to challenge until it is guaranteed to be safe,” says Light.
In the Karoo it is said that farmers need to farm 25 years ahead. It is a place so delicate that tyre tracks can linger untouched for three years. It could soon be filled with the choking dust from thousands of trucks laden with shale gas, in a country where energy is needed. Until then, a small-town lawyer, some 3,000 farmers and a billionaire intend put up a roadblock.

The South African government has taken a big step towards fracking in Africa’s biggest economy that is likely to lead to months of heated debate and court battles.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. The process requires vertical and horizontal drilling and the injection of pressurized fracking fluids, water and sand to extract the gas.
Oil companies see fracking as a potential boost for energy exports, jobs and foreign investment. Conservationists argue it will destroy ecosystems found in the semi-desert landscape of the Karoo, where much of the shale gas is located.
On April 29, 2011, the minister for mineral resources, Susan Shabangu, placed a moratorium on applications to explore fracking in the Karoo while her department conducted investigations. That ban on exploration was lifted on September 7 and the Investigation of Hydraulic Fracturing in the Karoo Basin of South Africa report, which the cabinet based its decision on, was released four days later.
Derek Light, an attorney for farmers in Graaff-Reinet, was unhappy with what he called a hasty decision to lift the moratorium.
“The task team could not have effectively performed its function in such a short a time. It should have performed a strategic environmental assessment in the broadest possible terms which would have enabled them to make a well-informed decision that would be in the best interests of the people of this country,” says Light.
Light was pleased to see that the report recognized the importance to revise the country’s regulatory framework, in order to control fracking.
Jonathan Deal, chairman of Treasure The Karoo Action Group—the official opposition to fracking in South Africa—says that the country’s first reaction was “let’s frack” instead of investigating other forms of energy.
“There is natural gas, offshore, in reservoirs which do not need to be fracked in order to remove it,” he says.
“We plan to lodge an appeal if and when exploration licenses are issued,” Deal says.
Ferrial Adam, a Greenpeace Africa climate and energy campaigner, also believes that the country should consider other forms of sustainable energy.
“Greenpeace’s research on ‘Advanced Energy Revolution’ scenarios shows that it is possible to create 50% of electricity from renewable energy by 2030, if we have the same political determination that government seems to put into fossil fuels,” she says.
Adam says that in a dry country like South Africa this decision by government is short-sighted.
“Contamination of groundwater aquifers and surface waters can occur due to fracking operations and through the disposal of waste waters. Small amounts of carcinogenic hydrocarbons are harmful to humans. In some cases, this waste water is minimally processed before being dumped into surface waters feeding public water supplies, or is held in ponds that may lead to releases of the chemicals into the environment.”
The head of Living Planet Unit, WWF South Africa, Saliem Fakir, says we can only see the outcome of fracking by looking at extractive industries at present. The track record for communities is rather dismal. The national coffers and private industry may benefit but the problem of impoverishment could be the inheritance of the local setting. Fakir pointed to countries like Nigeria, a country where Shell is active, to show how countries that are rich in oil can be poor.
“Extractive industries have boom and bust cycles. They often attract lots of labor and people from outside that leads to conflict, social pressure and displacement of local interests, the truth is that resource rich countries tend to have high levels of inequality. Elites tend to capture the rents and leave out the poor. We may see a similar phenomenon with shale gas if the extractive process suffers from poor governance and oversight,” says Fakir
Bonang Mohale, chairperson for Shell South Africa, was pleased with the details of the report.
“The suggestions made by the task team are in line with our exploration plans for the Karoo Basin,” says Mohale.
“South Africa needs energy now. Approximately 10 million people in South Africa do not have access to electricity. At the moment, South Africa is a net importer of energy. This means that South Africa needs the full range of energy sources. In combination with other energy sources, including renewables, gas could help secure South Africa’s energy future, while creating sustainable and permanent jobs for South Africans.”
Shell is preparing to submit a comprehensive environmental, social and health impact assessment (ESHIA) that is in line with the National Environmental Management Act. Shell promises to continue working closely with the people of the Karoo and South Africa to address concerns and ensure that they benefit from shale gas exploration.
Group Media Manager for Sasol Limited, one of the biggest energy companies on the continent, Alex Anderson, says that Sasol gave up its fracking license last year.
“We concluded an extensive technical study of the area and then decided not to pursue further exploration activities in the assigned TCP area. The decision was based on subsurface technical and operational considerations and was unanimously taken by the partnership,” said Anderson a few months back.
“Sasol has taken note of the decision by the South African government to lift the moratorium on shale gas exploration in the Karoo region. We continue to be very interested in the upstream oil and gas business landscape, which includes the shale gas in the Karoo and elsewhere. As a consequence we continue to monitor these developments with interest and if new opportunities present themselves we will actively evaluate and pursue if they are attractive from a technical and commercial perspective,” says Anderson.
The report commissioned by the department of mineral resources indicated that during the exploration phase, only normal exploration, would be allowed. This excludes hydraulic fracturing but instead includes a process whereby drilling, geophysical and geochemical mapping can take place.
The report spoke of the economic potential fracking would bring to the country. According to the United States Energy Information Administration there is an estimated 485 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas in the Karoo Basin, which could reduce the national dependence on other fossil fuels. It mentioned the environmental and socio-economic implications of water use. and the disposal of the fracking fluids. The task team said that due to the high volumes of water to be used and the possible contamination of water with the fracking fluids, they would need to conduct further research into water sources.
The report called for aa re-evaluation of South Africa’s regulatory framework to ensure that any possible negative impacts would be alleviated. A monitoring committee will be appointed to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated framework and the supervision of operations.
Now the conservationist and protestors await the application for the first exploration license and will see the applicant in court.

Between A Rock  And A Hard Place

It’s no secret that South Africa, the biggest and most power-rich country in Africa, faces an energy crisis. It has left the country’s growing industry and mining sector lagging. Government says the 485 tcf (trillion cubic feet) shale gas reserve, could be an answer.
Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, involves horizontal drilling to create fissures. The insertion of pressurized water, sand and fracking fluids release the gas. The tight-rock shale gas reserve is compared to extracting small pockets of gas from cement. Conventional fracking requires a high volume of water, up to 20 million liters per well. The process is heavily criticized for its potential environmental damage such as water usage and contamination; the pollution resulting from the production process and spoiling the biodiversity and aesthetics of the Karoo—a vast, largely untouched, landscape just to the north of Cape Town.
“The focus has been on the bad things, but there are many good things,” says Rob Jeffrey, managing director of Econometrix, who presented their economic predications for fracking at the Fossil Fuel Foundation conference on May 29, in Johannesburg. Organizers were disappointed that no government officials or policy-makers attended.
“South Africa is an energy-intensive country… If we want high growth, we need more energy. Fracking will encourage local industry development and create many jobs because the gas industry will be built from the bottom up, unlike in the States. It will result in poverty alleviation, by building downstream and upstream industries,” says Jeffrey.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) is in charge of licensing; Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA) is in charge of gas production and the government would be in charge of distribution. The time is now, says Ethel Teljeur of NERSA.
“South Africa [might] miss the window of low gas prices if it doesn’t invest in gas infrastructure,” she says.
Teljeur gave the example of missed opportunity in South Africa when home-grown energy company, Sasol, bought shale gas interests in Canada (Talisman) worth over $2 billion and would invest R10 billion ($1.17 billion) over the next five years; money that could have been invested at home.
An argument for fracking could find favor with the government. Dipuo Peters, South Africa’s Energy Minister, was one of the cabinet members who placed a moratorium on fracking. She says fracking should go ahead, if it can be done in a safe and responsible manner.
“The government is cognizant of the controversies associated with shale-gas extraction processes such as ground water and soil contamination, however with on-going developments I am confident that these challenges will in the not-so-far future come to pass,” she said in late March.
In her budget vote speech at the end of May, Susan Shabangu, Minister of Mineral Resources, said the investigation into the feasibility of shale gas in the Karoo will be presented to Cabinet in July.
“We should not have to sue the minister [Shabangu] to get the information which each citizen is entitled to know,” says Jonathan Deal—chairman of the Treasure the Karoo Action Group (TKAG). He took legal action, when in spite of letters and applications, little information was forthcoming. The TKAG won the case.
“When it was being established we needed to know who was on the task team; what they were investigating; who they were consulting; what reports they were considering; whether they had visited America or not or anywhere where fracking was happening. And essentially, what their activities were. We were concerned that it was being manipulated, or orchestrated. We wanted transparency, in revealing the information,” he says over a telephone interview from his Karoo farm.
Deal is an entrepreneur who is not opposed to economic development, as he has often been accused; on the contrary, he supports it, if it is done in a sustainable and responsible manner. He notes that there are more than 140 places worldwide, where fracking is under a moratorium, restriction or a ban.
Deal claims he has attended more public participation meetings than any other South African. He has sat with lobbying gas companies and their consultants.
“They are misleading and side-step the real issues. They have obfuscated and clothed it [public participation meetings] in technical details. And then they are allowed to tick a box to say they have visited wherever and consulted with the local community,” he says.
“One of the fatal flaws gas companies face is the millions of people in this country who will be directly affected by fracking but know nothing about it. They are the rural people that work on the farms, who do not have email, cellphones, telephones or a car to the nearest library to digest Shell’s technical English EMP [Environmental Management Plan].”
The energy industry is trying to get around these fears, with new technology. Andrew Kinghorn, of Shava Mining Enterprise, spoke about GasFrac’s Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) gel. The American-based company has eliminated conventional fracking fluids and the use of water for fracking. They pride themselves in being friendlier to the environment.
The waterless LPG gel remains liquid throughout the stimulation process. After the frac closes the gel returns to a low viscosity and supports sand in the fractures. When using water, around 20% to 50% of the fracture never contributes to gas production because it is in contact with water.
“Nearly 100% of the LPG gel is returned with the flowback in a much shorter time, 10 to 15 days, than conventional fracking methods,” says Kinghorn.
The gel’s properties include low surface tension; low viscosity and low density. It is soluble in hydrocarbons, which enables 3 to 5 times longer fracs; higher long-term production and quicker time to the market.
“It results in the elimination of water, water wells, ponds, handling facilities, frac tanks, additional cartage, disposal costs and the reduced flowback cost due to quick clean up. By using LPG, we are able to realize a higher yield of oil or gas and we don’t take water away from other uses or have the demanding logistics of transporting millions of gallons of water to a well,” he says.
Another positive advancement in the industry, as pointed out by Doug Bentley, of Schlumberger, is that all hydraulic fracturing chemicals are biodegradable. The only question which remains is, are gas companies willing to pay for the more expensive, environmentally friendly fracking fluids? Bentley emphasizes that: “Well placement is the number one issue for improved production. Drilling needs to be planned in 3D as soon as possible.”
There are numerous factors to be considered: the social, economic and ecological. Philip Lloyd, research professor at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology refers to gas as the “beautiful fuel” which provides an opportunity to develop our power system in a clean, relatively low-carbon way.
The reserve might be overestimated, due to the disappearing of gas through volcano-like cone escape structures over billions of years, according to Professor Maarten de Wit from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Scientists are unsure of the amount of escaped gas and how much remains.
“The South African landscape differs vastly from that of the United States because of the dolerite outcrop and needs to be assessed in a different way,” he says.
For now, gas companies and South Africans, alike, are holding their breath ahead of the outcome of the task team’s findings later this month.

Fracking At Face Value

The Herold father-son duo are the biggest mohair farmers in Graaff-Reinet, in the Eastern Cape; and the second biggest in the country. South Africa has 900 mohair farmers who make up 54% of the world’s production. The Herolds used innovative farming techniques, foresight and discipline to expand their land from 7,000 to 16,000ha. They lease another 6,000ha.
Richard Herold, aged 30, has his sights set on becoming the world’s number one mohair farmer; if hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, doesn’t put him out of business first.
“All our drinking water comes from underground, if it is contaminated our animals won’t have water to drink, that’ll be the end of small-stock farming. Water is the key,” says Herold.
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“Fracking would probably kill the mohair industry, because the area which is earmarked, like Jansenville and Beaufort West, is the main area of mohair production,” says Justin Coetzee of the South African Mohair growers association.
Like many Karoo farmers, they support attorney Derek Light who is battling it out against international energy companies wanting to pursue hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.
“The traffic and damage to the roads [is another concern], it would lead to an increase of stock theft and damage to property. A lot of the things are unknown, it might even be a positive, it might create a lot of jobs and incomes for people, but you don’t know. The possibility, if you look at what happened in America, I wouldn’t want that to happen here,” says Herold.
He believes fracking would change the way of life in the Karoo: “The big part of the attraction and value that we place on it, is the isolation. If you were to drive past drilling rigs it wouldn’t feel like you were in the Karoo,” he says.
“We have a farm in western Australia—where we keep feral goats for meat production—in a mining area. I’ve seen the impact where farming and mining mix and well… they don’t mix, it changes the dynamics completely,” he says.
While Herold’s great-grandfather bought the land in 1922; it was his grandfather who bought the animals. Seventy per cent were sheep and the rest goats. David Herold, his father, turned it into a mohair farm.
“We sold all our sheep two years ago and we’re slowly replacing them with goats,” says Herold. They now have 95% goats and some cattle. While other mohair farmers have a weaning rate of around 75%—they rear 75 kids off of 100 reproducing ewes—he has a 100% weaning rate. “That’s not to say we’re producing 100 from 100, we do have a loss of 10% but we also have twins; one makes up for the other,” he says smiling.
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When he’s not fighting off invading jackals and lynxes, from nearby game reserves, or attending meetings held by gas companies; he’s doing the day-to-day things to improve the quality of his mohair to get the best price.
“With our kid hair, we’re generally in the top three to five [sellers] in South Africa. But we can certainly improve on that. It’s nice to know that there is still a lot to be done to prepare our clip better. Our fiber was contaminated with grass seed last year, that’s something you can manage but you sometimes have to put the animals’ nutrition ahead of its fiber. Sometimes you have to make the decision to put them on the best food regardless of what happens to their hair,” says Herold.
“We had the highest ever adult mohair price per kilogram two seasons ago, which lasted for one week and then someone else got it. But that was a bin, so it was a compilation of other people’s mohair, so it wasn’t just one producer,” he says proudly.
While he is a registered stud breeder, he doesn’t sell them; he keeps the best genetic material for his farm.  He also puts the kids into a high-grazing, fenced off pen.
“If they grow up well and have a good foundation it gives them a head-start for the rest of their lives. They’re like children. It’s a good investment now for the future,” says Harold.
He speaks with great admiration when explaining his father’s innovative farming practices. Through his lateral thinking and decades of experience, he has successfully reduced the labor-intesity of ‘shedding’ goats after the goats have been shorn. While other farmers usually put their sheds near trees or shrubs which are natural forms of shelter and might decide not to shed them on certain nights on that account; David decided to strategically place them in open veld.
“Psychologically you know you have to shed them because there’s no other option. It usually takes quite a lot of effort and manpower, but in this way you’re forcing yourself to be disciplined because it’s open; one man can even do it, whereas others might require a few men to do so. Also they’re quite intelligent, you can train them. We’ll shear them every night regardless, so they’ll go automatically. It’s a habit you train into them, and the nanny goats will monitor the kids,” says Herold.
Herold has an eye for opportunity; he has his finger in many pies. He breeds 250 tuli cattle for the meat market and had up to 3,000 ostriches, until recently, because they do so well in times of drought and they’re versatile: you can farm them for their meat, feathers and eggs.
Imagine what his grandfather would say were he to find out that they currently have around 10,000 angora goats; by far the most for miles around. They’ll do anything but boast about it though, for they are humble people, even though, Herold has high ambitions: “I want to be the biggest mohair farmer in the world in the next few years.”
The flock numbers fluctuate depending on the season and the composition of the animals.
“You have to take a long-term view. Don’t stock your farm to the full potential as it’s an asset you have to look after, without over-grazing it,” says Herold.
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The land can hold anything up to 14,000; on average he has between 8,000 to 10,000 goats, he says.
Herold takes a very reasoned approach to farming, in the drought of 2009-2010 he had to de-stock by 10% to guarantee food for the remaining animals for the following year. One hundred hectares of the land is used for irrigation.
That’s not to say that farming doesn’t come with its fair share of political challenges too.
“I’d say our biggest concerns in farming are political: what our place is going to be priority-wise for the government. The ‘green papers’ they are putting forth look to limit the amount of land that individuals can own. Limiting anything in business is not conducive to investment and good business, it forces people to start looking elsewhere,” he says.
According to Herold, government appointed land-valuers don’t necessary understand or have the knowledge of the area.
“Every business is a long-term investment, it makes one think twice before re-investing and expanding in [one’s] business… I might invest in this property and grow it and then in 10 years a government valuer might say ‘no, it’s not worth this, it’s worth that’,” he says.
The monthly running costs of his farm are R100,000 ($12,000) and returns vary.
“We were getting a better price for our mohair five years ago then we are now. The cost of production has gone up. The game [reserve] industry has pushed up the price of land beyond what the farming value has been, so it’s more difficult to buy and expand your business now than what it was 20 years ago,” he says. He doesn’t find it surprising that many farmers are turning elsewhere to ecotourism and ‘bed and breakfasts’.
Between his and his father’s farms they employ 20 permanent staff, the average staff member has been with them for 10 years. David serves on the mohair trust and is the chairmen of the black economic empowerment development trust within the angora industry.
“We have incentive schemes in place and training courses in fencing, mohair grading and tractor driving. That is the key to small-stock farming: having good, reliable people working for you. You can’t pay them minimum wage, day in day out, and expect them to go the extra mile for you. Sometimes we can’t close shop on a Friday and open up again and start again on a Monday,” Herold says.
They fear if fracking happens, they may have to close shop on a Friday and may not be able to open again on a Monday.

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