Heritage Cases

In July 2012 Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) lodged an application for a Reconnaissance Permit in terms of Section 74 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (No. 28 of 2002) (MPRDA) for the undertaking off a speculative two-dimensional (2D) seismic survey in a number of petroleum licence blocks off the South and East coasts of South Africa (see Figure 1). An Environmental Management Plan (EMP) was compiled in terms of Section 39 of the MPRDA for a proposed 12 000 km seismic survey covering a portion of the Reconnaissance Permit area (which is 450 000 km2 in total) between St Francis Bay (25ºE) and Port Edward (31ºS) (see Figure 1). This EMP was submitted to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) in October 2012 for consideration and for approval by the Minister of Mineral Resources. On 11 February 2013 PASA notified PGS that their Reconnaissance Permit had been granted and would be issued subject to the submission of, inter alia, their financial provision in a format that is acceptable to PASA. PGS is now proposing to extend the initial 2D seismic survey by an additional 7 000 km. The proposed expanded survey area, which falls within the original Reconnaissance Permit area, is situated a substantial distance offshore roughly between Cape Agulhas and Cape St. Francis1 in water depths ranging from 200 m to over 4 000 m (see Figure 2). Although survey commencement would ultimately depend on a permit award date, it is anticipated that the survey would be undertaken during the summer of 2013/2014 and would take in the order of six months to complete. In terms of Section 102 of the MPRDA, PGS is required to compile an EMP Addendum focusing on the proposed seismic survey extension and submit it to PASA for consideration and for approval by the Minister of Mineral Resources. Furthermore, Interested and/or Affected Parties (I&APs) must be notified and consulted in this regard. PGS appointed CCA Environmental (Pty) Ltd (CCA) to compile this EMP Addendum for the proposed seismic survey extension to meet the relevant requirements of the MPRDA and the Regulations thereto.