AS part of the environmental authorisation process, the draft scoping report for ENI South Africa and Sasol Africa Ltd to be able to conduct exploratory drilling off South Africa’s east coast is now available for public comment.
The report is available on the project website www.erm.com/eni-exploration-eia as well as on request from ERM, and at Richards Bay Library and Durban Central Lending Public Library.
The public has 30 days to comment on the report, from 26 October to 24 November.
Comments to the draft scoping report can be submitted to eni.offshore.eia@erm.com.
Comments and ERM’s responses will be incorporated into the final scoping report which will be submitted to the Department of Mineral Resources for consideration.
Comments that reach ERM after 24 November will not be taken into consideration.
Additionally, public meetings will be held, which stakeholders are invited to attend.
ERM will present more information about the project and the EIA (environmental impact assessment), and members of the public will be given an opportunity to raise issues and put questions to the project team.
The first meeting will be held at 5.30pm on 13 November at Premier The Richards Hotel in Meerensee, and the following day at 5.30pm at Durban’s Gooderson Tropicana Hotel.
On both occasions, the project team will be at the venue from 4pm.
As operator of ER236, the section set aside for exploratory drilling, ENI is considering drilling up to four deep-water wells within a 1 840km squared area of interest, in water depths of between 1 500m and 2 100m.
The number of wells drilled, and their locations, will be determined by various factors, including seismic data analysis, geological target, and the presence of sea floor obstacles.
Environmental Resources Management (ERM) has been appointed as the Independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner for the EIA.
