Advocacy group Treasure Karoo Action Group (TKAG) has called for the revisiting of an intensive public consultation process before licences are issued for exploratory drilling for shale gas in South Africa’s central Karoo region.

This followed reports by Engineering News Online last week that energy group Shell had confirmed that it had received notification from the Petroleum Agency South Africa (Pasa) that its applications for three exploration rights in the Karoo, which had been submitted in 2009, were being processed.

Pasa had, however, emphasised that no actual hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, would take place until the appropriate regulations had been promulgated.

Addressing a meeting in Cradock, in the Eastern Cape, TKAG CEO Jonathan Deal said Shell was well aware that its public consultation process was “completely inadequate” in that, among other flaws, “hundreds of thousands” of Karoo residents were excluded from the process.

“At a minimum, Shell and its fellow applicants will have to revisit the public consultation process and this time they are going to encounter a far more informed public.

“We want answers on bans, moratoria, restrictions on fracking in other countries and a public discussion with Shell in connection with [its] documented violations of fracking regulations in [the US]. It’s time for Shell to face the music and tell the truth,” added AfriForum environmental affairs head Julius Kleynhans.