The Great Karoo Basin and subsidiary basins occupy more than half of South Africa’s land surface (~700,000 km2).

Although early exploration efforts by former national oil company SOEKOR for conventional oil resources during the 1960s and 1970s did not meet with commercial success, the Karoo basins nevertheless constitute a petroleum province with significant potential, as evidenced by numerous oil and gas shows being noted in scientific publications since the 19th Century.

Today, the onshore Karoo basins are the focus of a renewed international exploration effort, with unconventional gas being the principal exploration target

The southern main Karoo Basin of South Africa is considered prospective for shale gas exploration. Currently the Permian Whitehill Formation is thought to be most favourable target formation for shale gas exploration and production, owing to the high total organic content (TOC) averaging 5%, favourable maturities (Ro = 1- 4 %), thickness (30m average), depth (>1500m) and regional continuity of this formation. Furthermore, given the relatively high TOC and it proximity to the Whitehill Formation, the underlying and overlying Prince Albert and Collingham Formations are also of commercial interest.

The Main Karoo basin is considered an active petroleum system based on oil and gas shows documented within well reports and published literature. In 1968, exploration well CR1/68 in the southern main Karoo Basin yielded a gas flow rate of 1.83 mmscf/day for 23 hours from the fractured Fort Brown shale. The Fort Brown was thought to be self-sourcing (i.e. a gas shale), but may also have been charged by the underlying Whitehill Formation.

The shale gas resource within the Main Karoo basin remains highly speculative, due to the lack of geochemical and geophysical data, however technically recoverable gas-in-place scenarios suggests volumes range between 30 Tcf to 485 Tcf (Petroleum Agency SA, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017; EIA, 2011, 2013) . The internal estimate devised at the Petroleum Agency SA as of 2018, is 205Tcf, this estimate includes the Prince Albert, Whitehill and Collingham Formations.

A major exploration risk factor is the existence of dolerite intrusions, which occur in much of the Karoo Basin. The dolerites could have possibly compartmentalized the shales, metamorphosed the shales and perhaps overcooked the shales overmature. Although exploration activities in the Karoo Basin is yet to kick off, the basin is still considered highly prospective for shale gas resource, but such a resource potential will remain inconclusive until exploratory drilling and hydraulically fractured test wells produce commercial quantities of gas. Shale gas exploration will also depend upon the gas market prices and if the resource is of economic feasibility. Shale gas exploration could possibly create many jobs in the outlying areas of the rural Karoo, however significant capital will need to be invested to develop the infrastructure which is lacking in these areas

An initial 2009 publication by the U.S Energy Information Administration (US.EIA) estimated that the South African Karoo basin potentially holds about 485 Tcf technically recoverable shale gas resources, which they later revised to 390 Tcf. This sparked interest from exploration and production companies who lodged applications with the Petroleum Agency SA for further investigations into this prospectivity. The first Technical Cooperation Permits (TCPs), in respective of shale gas assessment, were awarded between 2009 to 2010 to Falcon Oil and Gas, Shell B.V. International and Sasol-Chesapeake-Statoil consortium. In 2010, the first Exploration Right (ER) applications were received from Shell B.V. International, Falcon Oil and Gas and Bundu Oil and Gas (Pty) Ltd. The public expressed concerns about the country’s capacity to regulate the development of shale gas, especially considering the potential risks to the environment and groundwater in particular.

Subsequent to the initial ER applications, National Government declared a moratorium, from 2011 over the mid and southern regions of the Karoo Basin. As yet no exploration activities, except for a few academic studies, for shale had commenced.

Pursuant to the recommendations of the Ministerial Task Team, in 2012 Cabinet decided that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) should evaluate the full potential of shale gas as a potential source of indigenous energy in South Africa, along with comprehensive Geo-environmental baseline investigations in potentially prospective areas of the Karoo Basin. The department administered the Petroleum Agency SA (PASA) to carry out the above-mentioned tasks in collaboration with the Council for Geosciences (CGS). The project is divided into two main phases.

The main objectives of phase one are;

1. Drilling of an ultra-deep stratigraphic borehole (KDD) for the Geo-environmental baseline Programme.
2. Evaluation of the shale gas resource in prospective shale formations of the Karoo Basin.
3. Establishment of a regional baseline groundwater monitoring network in the Karoo Basin.
4. Assessing the integrity of historically abandoned exploration wells drilled in the Karoo Basin and developing new decommissioning guidelines.
5. Establishing a regional seismicity monitoring network.

Phase two of the project mainly aims to collect more geophysical data across the Karoo Basin to further delineate areas of high shale gas prospectivity relative to areas of high environmental sensitivity. This stage of the project is also determined by the gaps identified from phase one due to insufficient/poor quality of the available legacy data from the 1960s.

The current work Programmes in the Karoo do not include hydraulic fracturing and the moratorium still remains on new applications.