- Shell Offshore Upstream South Africa B.V. (Operator) and its Joint-Venture (JV) partners jointly hold an Exploration Right for Licence Block Northern Cape Ultra Deep (NCUD).
- SLR Consulting reveals that the Operator is applying to undertake exploration and appraisal activities within Licence Block NCUD.
- The proposed activities within Licence Block NCUD include drilling up to 5 exploration and/or appraisal wells, vertical seismic profiling (VSP), well testing, plugging and abandonment of wells and associated geophysical surveys.
Block NCUD is located off the West Coast of South Africa, roughly between Port Nolloth and Saldanha Bay. The Block is approximately 300 km offshore, in water depths between 2 500 m and 3 200 m. The Area of Interest for drilling is approximately 5 254 square kilometres in extent.
Prior to the commencement of the Proposed Project, an Environmental Authorisation in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014, (GN R 982 of 2014), promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (No. 107 of 1998) from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is required.
SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (SLR), an independent firm of Environmental Assessment Practitioners, has been appointed by Shell to manage the environmental authorisation processes.
The Draft Scoping Report forms part of the Scoping Phase of the ESIA process and has been compiled and distributed for public review and comment until 8 August 2024. Interested and Affected Parties (I&AP) are invited to comment on any aspect of the proposed project and ESIA process findings. A full copy of the report, as well as a Non-Technical Summary (NTS) are available for download below.
Any comments should be sent to SLR via this online form (CLICK HERE)
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
