Sungu-Sungu Gas Pty. Ltd. has yielded to activist pressure and suspended applications to explore for shale gas in Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
The company wrote a letter to Petroleum Agency South Africa withdrawing the applications and confirmed the move to the Sunday Times, Johannesburg.
The newspaper quoted a company official saying: “It’s no longer worth it. There are many objections. We decided to just pull out.”
The activist group Frack Free South Africa called the news “the first of many victories.”
Sungu-Sungu Gas, a unit of South African mining conglomerate Sungu-Sungu Group, is among several oil and gas companies that have shown interest in the shale potential of massive Karoo basin.
The South African government banned hydraulic fracturing during 2011-12 (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2012).
