The onslaught on the Soutpansberg’s rich mineral resources continues, with the Petroleum Agency SA receiving and accepting an application from the international petroleum company, Consulting Evolution Mining (Pty) Ltd (CEM), for exploration rights for petroleum and gas across almost the entire area north of the Soutpansberg in Limpopo.

According to their website, CEM operates across Africa, with established offices in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their application was published in the Provincial Gazette on 26 July 2024 under Provincial Notice 597 of 2024.

The aim is to find petroleum and natural gas

CEM intends to undertake exploration for petroleum and natural gas over a large area spanning various farms in the magisterial districts of Musina, Soutpansberg, Dzanani, and Mutale. In total, CEM has applied for exploration rights on 206 full farms and portions of farms, covering an approximate area of 171,015.447 hectares. (To view the list of farms, click here)

The objective of the exercise is for CEM to assess the petroleum and natural-gas potential of the area. To this end, they have proposed a three-year phased exploration work programme comprising three phases.

A phased approach

According to the Provincial Gazette’s executive summary, Phase 1 will primarily involve desktop studies, including the collation of pre-existing geological borehole information, geological maps, existing geoscientific data, geological field mapping, and possibly the acquisition of seismic surveys.

Depending on positive results from Phase 1, CEM stated that they might proceed to drill exploration wells, analyse the intersected geological formations and any gas encountered, acquire wireline logs, and possibly conduct flow tests on the wells as part of Phase 2. As for Phase 3, this will again depend on the positive results from Phase 2. CEM may, in Phase 3, proceed with studies to determine the economic viability of the project, including geological modelling, engineering design, financial modelling, and market analyses.

The executive summary notes that some of CEM’s planned activities are ground-invasive, and as such, CEM will be required to undertake the necessary environmental impact assessment studies as mandated by law before proceeding with these activities.

No final decision yet

“It is worth noting that the recommendation to grant or refuse the exploration right will only be made after a decision on an application for environmental authorisation in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations 2014 is reached. CEM has been advised to commence with the application for environmental authorisation, and interested and affected parties will have further opportunities to comment during the environmental impact assessment process,” the summary states. Interested and affected parties have 30 days from the gazetting of the notice to register their inputs or objections.

Environmental groups speak out

Among the first to register as interested and affected parties were Living Limpopo and the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve (VBR). In their joint letter to the Petroleum Agency SA, they state that they have a particular interest and expertise in environmental science, bioregional planning, and promoting sustainable development in the Vhembe District of Limpopo Province. They have a long-standing history of representing the interests of landowners and historically disadvantaged communities in the region.

“We submit that we are opposed to any further petroleum resource exploration in the Vhembe District and object to the acceptance, consideration, or granting of this application on the grounds of the severe adverse environmental, social, and economic impacts that fossil fuel resource exploration and exploitation will cause, from the local to the global level,” the two organisations state. They add that the exploration for new fossil fuel resources in South Africa conflicts with South Africa’s binding commitments and the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems in the context of the global climate crisis.

“At the local level, exploration activities and the potential development of a petroleum and gas extraction industry in this sensitive bioregion will cause harmful pollution, deplete scarce water resources, threaten the food and water security of vulnerable rural communities, worsen poverty and inequality, infringe on the Constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to health and well-being, and undermine climate change resilience in a region where the increasing frequency and intensity of droughts already hurts farmers and the rural poor,” Living Limpopo and the VBR say.

Granting of right will devastate Vhembe

The two organisations also hold the view that the destruction of Vhembe’s natural capital, which fossil-fuel resource extraction will inevitably cause, will destroy the growth potential of agriculture, tourism, and the emerging biodiversity-based economy in the region. “The degradation of the natural carbon sink, the protected areas network, and high biodiversity value areas constitutes damage to natural infrastructure and natural assets that have the potential to generate significant economic returns in the emerging global environmental markets, including the carbon market. The mere threat of the development of these industries, as represented by active prospecting licenses, will repel investors and cause capital flight,” the organisations state.

Living Limpopo and the VBR further assert that, on an economic cost-benefit basis and considering the alternatives, the granting of petroleum and gas exploration rights in the Vhembe District is highly undesirable, not in the public interest, and should be refused. “Finally, we submit that for many of the 206 proposed sites listed in the application notice, mining prospecting and mining activities are incompatible land uses in terms of the Land Use Guidelines and Land Management Objectives specified in the Vhembe District Bioregional Plan for areas classified as Critical Biodiversity Areas and Ecological Support Areas, and the granting of the application would be inconsistent with the adopted land use and spatial planning framework for Vhembe,” says Living Limpopo and the VBR.

In light of the above, it is rumoured that the Endangered Wildlife Trust, as well as members of the region’s farmers’ unions, will follow suit and register as affected parties.