News and information on Shell Plc
Western Cape, South Africa (CNN) — South Africa has an energy deficit on its hands. Too many people want fuel for their cars and electricity for their homes, and the country is struggling to keep up with demand.
To help ease this perceived crisis the big companies want to start drilling for natural gas using a controversial drilling technique called fracking. Under the plans the drilling will be done in one of the most remote and beautiful places in South Africa, the Karoo.
By Andres R. Martinez – Mar 3, 2012 12:57 PM GMT
A study commissioned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) about the potential of shale gas in South Africa doesnt consider the risks related to developing the deposits, according to an environmental group.
The findings are lacking in balance to the extent that one must call the objectivity and credibility of the analysis into question, Jonathan Deal, chairman of Treasure the Karoo Action Group, said in an e-mailed statement today. The study doesnt include costs related to damaged road infrastructure, health remediation costs, pollution remediation and environmental monitoring and enforcement of standards.
Chris Hayward, a South African farmer, says, “If our government lets these companies touch even a drop of our water, we’re ruined.”: Photo Credit: Liaan Pretorius for The New York Times
By IAN URBINA
KAROO, South Africa When a drought dried up their wells last year, hundreds of farmers and their families flocked to local fairgrounds here to pray for rain, and a call went out on the regional radio station imploring South Africans to donate bottled water.
Covering much of the roughly 800 miles between Johannesburg and Cape Town, this arid expanse its name means thirsty land sees less rain in some parts than the Mojave Desert.
October 5 2011 at 05:00am
By Jan Willem Eggink, General Manager Upstream Operations, Shell South Africa
Some of you may have seen this image on television or the internet. A man reaches across and turns on his kitchen tap. He takes a lighter and applies it to the stream of water, it bursts into flame. The flame is attributed to the presence of methane gas.
It is a powerful image. But it is important to be clear about the source of the gas. While critics suggest natural gas drilling as the cause, there is considerable evidence that dissolved methane can occur naturally in ground water. Indeed, according to the Department of Water Affairs, methane gas has been found in shallow water wells in the Karoo.
ublication: Chicago Sun-Times
Date: January 19, 1986
Author: Barry Cronin
Section: SUNDAY NEWS
Edition: FIVE STAR SPORTS FINAL
Page: 55
A coalition of labor unions has called on Americans to boycott products sold by the Shell Oil Co., a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/ Shell Group, which has extensive oil, coal and chemical operations in South Africa.
The unions contend Royal Dutch/Shell, the world’s second largest multinational company in terms of sales, employs black slave labor in South Africa’s Rietspruit coal mine, of which it owns 50 percent with a South African firm.
LINDA ENSOR
Published: 2011/09/02 06:49:50 AM
CAPE TOWN Shell would invest billions of dollars in the development of a Karoo gas field in the event that it got the go- ahead to drill and if its exploration of the area proved fruitful, Shells upstream manager for SA, Jan Eggink, said yesterday.
The US Energy Information Administration has estimated that there are 485-trillion cubic feet of shale gas in the Karoo, enough to make SA self-sufficient in energy for decades to come.
Exploration alone would cost Shell $200m even if it was found that the reserves were not exploitable, Mr Eggink told the Cape Town Press Club.
Farmers, scientists, NGOs, a Dutch princess, a business tycoon, a long-distance swimmer, a Facebook account with already 6,500 members as of 19 April 2011. Royal Dutch Shell is facing strong opposition to its plans to get an exploration license to seek shale gas in South Africa’s semi-desert Karoo region.
The consulting firm Golder Associates, working on behalf of Shell, drafted an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) for three exploration areas, each comprising 30,000 kilometres. Until 5 April 2011, the public was allowed to comment to these plans. The drilling of a maximum of 24 wells was not expected to commence before 2012. Golder stated in its conclusions to the EMPs that there was no material evidence that a small number of exploration wells could result in an unacceptable level of environmental impact, and that therefore the determination of the resource potential of the Karoo shale gas formations not should be prevented or delayed. As long as the siting and management of the wells would be controlled through a rigorous, scientific Environmental Impact Assessment process, it would be unlikely that the construction would result in unacceptable environmental damage, the company continued.
June 1 2011 at 04:15pm
The Advertising Standards Authority is investigating whether Royal-Dutch Shell advertisements about hydraulic fracturing are misleading and untruthful, the Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG) said on Wednesday.
Shell had run the full-page advertisements in national weekly newspapers and had distributed flyers at its service stations, TKAG national co-ordinator Jonathan Deal said in a statement.
This, after the Cabinet declared a moratorium on all applications for licences to conduct hydraulic fracturing in the exploration of shale gas reserves in the Karoo.
May 29, 2011 3:08 AM | By ANTON FERREIRA
That’s because the company De la Rey Venter works for in the Netherlands is Royal Dutch Shell, one of the companies that want to “frack” his former backyard.
Venter, a former head boy at Colesberg High School, has had a meteoric career since obtaining a BCom at the University of Johannesburg in 1997. He worked for Samancor, then BHP Billiton. In 2002 he joined Shell.
On a website advertising the school at which he obtained his MBA, Venter said he had chosen his career at Shell because he was “fascinated by the intrigues of geo-politics and by the global energy and environmental debates”.
May 3 2011 at 07:01pm
Shell Oil Company, which has decades of experience in natural gas development in Alberta, Canada and in Texas, US, believes the procedure of drilling wells and using millions of gallons of water to extract shale gas in the karoo can be done without significant environmental damage.
It is also looking at, and piloting, other technology applications, including tight and shale gas fracturing which do not use water. One option is the use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). This effectively uses gas to extract gas.
CHANTELLE BENJAMIN: Published: 2011/04/29 06:40:25 AM
A GROUP of Karoo residents has accused oil company Royal Dutch Shell of being “untruthful and misleading” and has lodged a complaint over an advert which tries to allay public fears about its fracking exploration technique .
The complaint by specialist energy attorneys Havemann Inc on behalf of Treasure the Karoo Action Group is over an advert in the Sunday Times and the Cape Times this month headed “Dialogue on the Karoo”, which they allege aims to mislead readers.
By Julienne du Toit
South African anti-fracking groups had an extra Easter egg in their baskets this week when the government announced a moratorium on Big Energy plans to prospect for gas in the Karoo, the countrys semi-desert heartland.
What? People Power takes on a tag team of fuel giants and local politicians and wins the 1st round of the southern African Gas Wars? Can it be?
Damn straight. Life retains its ability to surprise and delight.
I came across an article recently with the headline: 5 Reasons to Be Hopeful We Haven’t Totally Screwed Ourselves and the Planet … Yet.
By Robert Brand – Apr 21, 2011 2:31 PM GMT+0100
South Africas Cabinet endorsed the Department of Mineral Resources decision to declare a moratorium on natural-gas drilling in the Karoo region, halting plans by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europes largest oil company.
The department will lead an investigation into the implications of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that will include assessing the environmental effects, government spokesman Jimmy Manyi told reporters in Pretoria today.
FIONA MACLEOD Apr 15 2011 10:58
Shell’s plans to drill wells for natural gas across a large swathe of the Karoo are fatally flawed and should be rejected, according to lawyers representing local landowners.
Derek Light Attorneys criticised Shell’s environmental management plan submitted to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (Pasa) this week, describing it as “a worthless paper exercise” that was misleading, biased, unprocedural and unconstitutional.
The attorneys also represent AgriSA and business tycoon Johann Rupert, who owns a farm in the Karoo. The area is the world’s largest mohair producer and has wool, red meat and ecotourism sectors.
By John Donovan
The first three draft EMP documents below have been compiled by Golder Associates Africa (Pty) Ltd (Golder), a so called “independent” environmental consultant, retained and paid by Shell.
The documents are part of Royal Dutch Shells application to explore the Karoo basin in South Africa for shale gas using the controversial hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technique.
The remaining document is a critical review prepared by Havemann Inc., specialist energy attorneys.
April 6 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s application to start shale-gas exploration in South Africa’s Karoo region should be terminated because it lacks sufficient information for regulators to assess it properly, Havemann Inc. attorneys said.
Shell, planning to drill about 24 wells in an area of about 90,000 square kilometers (34,749 square miles), faces opposition to its proposed hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, in the sheep and game farming region, an arid stretch across northwest South Africa, from the Treasure the Karoo Action Group, which has 3,000 supporters and commissioned Havemann to compile the report.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our non-profit websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
This is not a Shell website. That fact should be abundantly plain from the overall content of this home page and our sister Shell focussed websites, including shellnazihistory.com. Click on the Disclaimer link at top of this page for more information. You Can Be Sure Shell does not endorse or approve of this website. There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations. No advertising is accepted. It is an entirely free to use non-commercial website drawing attention to the negative side of Shell. The Shell logo image with the white text used on this website, as per the above example, is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous. It can be found here on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
