IN early 2016, Rhino Oil and Gas lodged an application for an ER to explore for petroleum products in Vryheid.
These products include oil, gas, condensate, coal bed methane, helium and biogenic gas. The prospective frackers were met with disapproval from the community.
Since the initial meeting, which was held at Cecil Emmett Hall last year, where Rhino Oil and Gas representatives invited the public to voice their concerns over the independent oil and gas exploration and development company’s application to explore a large part of Northern KZN, including Vryheid, for oil and gas, the project has suffered some minor setbacks.
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SLR Consulting’s Matthew Hemming writes, “…it was identified late in 2016 that not all of the properties that are the subject of the application were identified during the sourcing of property and land owner information from the Surveyor-General’s office. The result was that a subset of property owners for the 317 ER application were not notified nor given opportunity to review the environmental impact assessment report.
“Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration South Africa (Pty) Ltd thus applied to and obtained from PASA an extension to the submission date for the environmental impact report (EIR) – the revised submission date is April 10, 2017. Further work has subsequently been undertaken to identify the owners of the properties. Where contact details have been obtained, these owners have been sent notifications and invited to review the EIR.
“We can confirm that, despite the process of further owners being identified, the maps and list of properties presented in the draft EIR of November 2016 remain correct. There has not been any change to the extent of the 317 ER application area…”
“As a registered I&AP, you are hereby provided with a further 30-day opportunity to review the draft EIR. Please refer to Section 3 of this letter for information on the review period as well as details of the public feedback meetings that will be held. You are most welcome to provide further comment and to attend these meetings. For clarity you are advised that any comments previously made to SLR will be included in the final EIR; the content of the EIR remains as it was in November 2016, except for the details on additional land owners and the further notification and EIR review process and the EIA findings to be presented at the upcoming March 2017 meetings will be the same as was presented at the meetings held in November 2016.”
