http://omnifeed.com/article/ww...hts-in-national-park



Botswana sells fracking rights in national park

Licences for more than half of the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, one of Africa’s largest conservation areas, have been granted to drill for shale gas


Jeff Barbee
Wednesday 2 December 2015 04.53 EST Last modified on Wednesday 2 December 2015 07.14 EST


The Botswana government has quietly sold the rights to frack for shale gas in one of Africa’s largest protected conservation areas, it has emerged.

The Kgalagadi transfrontier park, which spans the border with South Africa, is an immense 3 6,000 sq km wilderness, home to gemsbok desert antelope, black-maned Kalahari lions and pygmy falcons. But conservationists and top park officials – who were not informed of the fracking rights sale – are now worried about the impact of drilling on wildlife.

Prospecting licences for more than half of the park were granted to a UK-listed company called Nodding Donkey in September 2014, although the sale has not been reported previously. That company changed its name earlier this month to Karoo Energy.

Park officials said that no drilling has yet taken place, but the Guardian found oil sediment on the ground near a popular camp site. There was an overwhelming smell of tar and a drill stem protruded from an apparently recently drilled hole. It is not known who had carried out the drilling or when.

Scientist Gus Mills worked and lived in Kgalagadi for 18 years studying cheetahs and hyenas. He said he is worried about the impact on wildlife and environment.

“The development that is going to have to go on there, with infrastructure that has to be moved in, seems to be yet another nail in the coffin of wild areas in the world.”

Dr Peter Apps, who studies large predators for the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust , said drilling could have a range of impacts, notably on water sources in the park.

He said that if companies develop commercial gas wells here “then that is not good for nature conservation, and because large carnivores are an apex species, they tend to suffer more than anything else”.


Ben van Eerden, the tourism manager for the South African side of the park, and Leabaneng Bontshetse, the Botswana Kgalagadi park manager, were not aware of licences being issued. “We haven’t seen any licences being issued, we haven’t been told of anything and there is no company drilling in the park,” said Bontshetse.

He was concerned that the Botswana department of minerals may have already issued licences: “I am surprised and I am shocked.”

A map of the 2014 drilling licences shows more than half of the Kgalagadi park on the Botswana side was up for sale to gas prospecting companies last year.

In a company statement issued in April, Karoo Energy under its previous name of Nodding Donkey said it had acquired three fracking licences covering 29,291, 34,435 and 23,980 sq km in September 2014 through two of its majority-owned subsidiaries, Equatorial Oil and Tamboran.


The Guardian made several efforts to contact Karoo Energy but the company did not respond. The Botswana government was also approached for comment but did not reply.


The government previously acknowledged that foreign companies had been fracking for gas in the country after the Guardian uncovered gas developments in other national parks.

Olmo von Meijenfeldt, director of the South African organisation Democracy Works, is concerned about the impact on rural communities. “Governments should be reluctant if not downright hostile towards extracting natural resources for a short-term benefit that will contribute to a deterioration of habitat and our long-term capacity for sustainable development and poverty alleviation.”

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Botswana’s growing tourism industry is the second biggest income earner after diamonds and employs 32,000 people.


Mills says he believes that commercial development in the park will make it much less attractive to visitors and “devastate” tourist income. He sees the move as driven by short-term economic motives. “It’s a microcosm of what we are doing to the whole planet, as long as its going to make someone some money that seems to be all that’s important.”

Alliance Earth paid for travel and accommodation for Jeffrey Barbee. Additional reporting by Mira Dutschke and Nabeelah Shabbir

Where are the antis when you need them?

Fracking disgusting.

Money trumps conservation...

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
Where are the antis when you need them?

Fracking disgusting.

They are not EVER needed!

gas and oil fracking will only help the conservation

what gives here

I live in the oil field here in SE New Mexico. The "development", some of which is almost 100 yrs old now, is one of the centers of our economy locally. As for environmental impact, I was quail hunting out there last weekend. Saw several deer and coyotes and killed my limit of quail. Seems that the so called development hasn't hurt the local wildlife much if any.
I do have a problem with the "fracking" comments in the article. Fracking is a normal part of drilling and has been going on here locally for many years. Fracking hasn't hurt anything that I am aware of and has made our oil fields more productive. Outlawing fracking will be akin to outlawing fertilizer in agriculture.

I don't have an issue with fracking per se, and Botswana now that it has figuratively shot itself in the foot by removing a source of revenue from hunting that they apparently need to replace, has a right to do with its resources as it wishes, regardless of how hypocritical it may seem to us.

My issue with oil and gas companies is that they get rights on public lands to drill and then often shut down public access to this publically owned land. More an issue in the US for me than elsewhere, but likely something of an issue in other spots as well.

CR: Not trying to be argumentative but where have you personally experienced restrictive access due to drilling companies exercising their mineral rights? The reason I ask is because of some pending projects where I recreate. Thanks.

South Dakota.

They had the area blocked off for working on it. I went and paid a trespass fee to hunt elsewhere, it may have been short term, but they had the access road shut down so you could not get out there.

Drilling rights apply to the subsurface only. Companies are granted access to the drill/production site via lease roads. They have no authority to deny access to property other than the actual well site--which is very limited in size. Assuming policy has not changed in the six years I have been retired from ExxonMobil.

Yes, this has to be positive. I know NE British Columbia and most of Alberta has improved significantly with all the oil and gas development. The access it creates is terrific, there are seismic lines, pipeline right-of-ways, access roads, pump jack and metering sites, compressor station sites and battery sites everywhere. Thousands of miles of easy access.

You can get to places to hunt that there was no way in hell you could access in years gone by. Heck even on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, places we use to have pack into with horses and spend hours cutting blow downs off the trails every year, we can cruise in there now with a pickup. It's much easier.

Also, there are guys checking the production sites every day, always some sort of company trucks, service trucks, even tankers, and they keep the access roads plowed out all winter as well. If you break down out there while road hunting along the access roads there will eventually be someone that comes along and gives you a hand.

It's great!!

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:


Fracking disgusting.

Explain please?

I work in oil and gas as well and have never seen any proven negative effects. Lots of speculation and innuendo by the crunchy enviro-muffin types.

I'm not sure observations about oil fields in the US will hold true in Africa.

Fewer enviromental controls.

Increased access = easier poaching

Income goes to the corrupt officials

Jobs will probably go to the Chinese

Africa being Africa!

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
Yes, this has to be positive. I know NE British Columbia and most of Alberta has improved significantly with all the oil and gas development. The access it creates is terrific, there are seismic lines, pipeline right-of-ways, access roads, pump jack and metering sites, compressor station sites and battery sites everywhere. Thousands of miles of easy access.

You can get to places to hunt that there was no way in hell you could access in years gone by. Heck even on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, places we use to have pack into with horses and spend hours cutting blow downs off the trails every year, we can cruise in there now with a pickup. It's much easier.
Also, there are guys checking the production sites every day, always some sort of company trucks, service trucks, even tankers, and they keep the access roads plowed out all winter as well. If you break down out there while road hunting along the access roads there will eventually be someone that comes along and gives you a hand.

It's great!!

That's not always a good thing mate.

quote:

Originally posted by Ongwe:
I'm not sure observations about oil fields in the US will hold true in Africa.

Fewer enviromental controls.

Increased access = easier poaching

Income goes to the corrupt officials

Jobs will probably go to the Chinese

Africa being Africa!

Yep and probably not a single cent will go to the Parks or the local communities.

Workers have to eat and you can bet that the park animals are going to be hammered.

quote:

Originally posted by Bakes:

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
Yes, this has to be positive. I know NE British Columbia and most of Alberta has improved significantly with all the oil and gas development. The access it creates is terrific, there are seismic lines, pipeline right-of-ways, access roads, pump jack and metering sites, compressor station sites and battery sites everywhere. Thousands of miles of easy access.

You can get to places to hunt that there was no way in hell you could access in years gone by. Heck even on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, places we use to have pack into with horses and spend hours cutting blow downs off the trails every year, we can cruise in there now with a pickup. It's much easier.
Also, there are guys checking the production sites every day, always some sort of company trucks, service trucks, even tankers, and they keep the access roads plowed out all winter as well. If you break down out there while road hunting along the access roads there will eventually be someone that comes along and gives you a hand.

It's great!!

That's not always a good thing mate.

Bakes.......... well I'll be, never thought an Aussie would be unable to spot sarcasm when he sees it. Apparently I did a piss poor job of writing it so others would realize it was tongue in cheek.

Someone needs to design one of those little smiley face gizmos for this purpose.

Kelly sometimes the message is not reaching the way it is supposed to ...

i like the idea of all those trucks wandering in the northern wild instead of horses what a romantic idea lol ....

I was at the campsites in the Mabua area in Kgalagadi in August and it's a supremely remote and untouched pristine environment with no water within 200 miles with unique desert animals like gemsbok, kalahari lions and eland. If the fracting needs lots of water, and it does, where it will come from will be a problem, particularly the ground water. Currently the roads are bone rattling dirt tracks in sand but fracking will bring paved roads like to Maun and with that will come a migration of people seeking various jobs, crime and poaching. I won't miss the roads but with such a delicate environment I can only foresee problems for the animals and environment.

quote:

Bakes.......... well I'll be, never thought an Aussie would be unable to spot sarcasm when he sees it. Apparently I did a piss poor job of writing it so others would realize it was tongue in cheek.Someone needs to design one of those little smiley face gizmos for this purpose. The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who are bereft of that gift.Idealism is what precedes experience, cynicism is what follows.

Sorry mate, didn't catch on...you have to use more smiles. Perhaps a few of these or or even

I am in the oil business and have been for 35 years. I would be happy to quit my job here, go there and manage the entire process for them. I know the good and the bad, have worked in some of the most pristine areas in the world as well as old oil fields in New Mexico, TX and everywhere else.

As in anything, the environment can be safe guarded. It depends on who it is and the what is the economic benefit.

quote:

Originally posted by LR3:
I was at the campsites in the Mabua area in Kgalagadi in August and it's a supremely remote and untouched pristine environment with no water within 200 miles with unique desert animals like gemsbok, kalahari lions and eland. If the fracting needs lots of water, and it does, where it will come from will be a problem, particularly the ground water. Currently the roads are bone rattling dirt tracks in sand but fracking will bring paved roads like to Maun and with that will come a migration of people seeking various jobs, crime and poaching. I won't miss the roads but with such a delicate environment I can only foresee problems for the animals and environment.

The water usually comes from water wells in these environments. The wells are then left for the locals or landowners. I do this every single day in the USA. If there is groundwater, and usually is plenty, water wells are the source.