Silly Season – when the rush for comments on applications begin

As the majority of South Africa’s work force begins to find themselves in the chaos of silly season hoping to wind-down for a well-deserved hiatus, Environmental Consultants, Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, and Petroleum Agency South Africa ramp up their outputs of notifications for public comments and appeals on various oil and gas applications.

At this time, there are two pending applications awaiting public comments, 1) an appeal on the Environmental Authorisation for the Searcher Seismic Survey (048) and 2) comments on the Exploration EIA report for the Northern Cape Ultra Deep (NCUD) proposed exploration (to be released on SLR website on 11 November).  

Today, we notify ONO affiliates of the notification and relevant documents on the Searcher Seismic Survey (048), a reconnaissance / seismic survey application.

On 24 October 2024, a notification to stakeholders that the Environmental Authorisation (EA) for the proposed SEARCHER seismic survey on the west coast has been granted, together with the Reasons for the Decision. The EA, applicable for an area offshore of St Helena Bay and Hondeklip Bay, notes that the proposed activities (seismic surveys) are ‘generally regarded as non-intrusive in nature’.

The notification distributed by SLR invites Registered Interested & Affected Parties to lodge an appeal on or before 13 November 2024.  The Appeal must be submitted in writing and on the prescribed appeal form (downloadable here), and copying in the relevant authorities, as listed in the above notification.

To refresh your memory on the ins and outs of this application, have a look at the following English, isiXhosa or Afrikaans information pamphlet, created by Natural Justice during the Basic Assessment Phase.