Contact Details:

Air Con-Nected Lubricants

999 Katrol Street
Robertville
Gauteng
2194
South Africa

Tel: +27 (0)86 1022024
Alt. Tel: +27 (0)83 703 2273
Fax: +27 (0)86 503 4534

Send Enquiry | Company Information

At Shell, we aim to meet the energy needs of society in ways that are economically, environmentally and socially responsible. We achieve this by adhering to a comprehensive set of business principles and rigorous standards covering health, safety, security, environment (HSSE) and social performance (SP).

 

Shell has been providing energy for South Africans for generations. We have helped to fuel your cars and trucks. In the early days we traded in paraffin and kerosene. In the 1960s we helped develop the nation’s cool reserves on which the country still depends.

 

Today our operations and petroleum products contribute to the economic growth of South Africa. Now we are exploring for natural gas – a cleaner and environmentally friendly fuel that could play a big part in reducing dependence on coal and reducing its emissions significantly.

 

Advanced technologies, new ways of operating and partnerships with environmental experts and scientists is constantly helping us better manage our environmental impact as we help meet the world’s growing energy needs.

 

At an early stage we undertake an environmental and social impact assessment of our projects routinely using external scientists and environmental experts as well as community experts in an inclusive consultative process to understand the environment in which we want to work. This feeds into the project design and how we will do the project to ensure we reduce impacts as much as possible and bring environmental and social benefits.

 

When we operate in areas of high biodiversity value, we carefully develop action plans designed to specifically protect sensitive ecosystems. We worked with environmental organisations such as the IUCN, Wetlands International, the Nature Conservancy, and Earthwatch on 30 separate projects in 2010 alone to help us better manage sensitive Artic, managrove and desert environments.

 

In this project in the Karoo we are in the early stages. The Environmental Management Plan is intended to provide an overview of the environmental risks of our exploration plan to inform the licence application. If we get a licence we will be doing a full environmental and social impact assessment with extensive consultation to help us design the project and how and where we drill our exploration wells.

 

Our approach to safety includes ensuring that our facilities are well designed, maintained and properly inspected, and that our operations are safe and reliable.

 

Through significant advancements in technology, combined with decades of industry experience, natural gas can be produced from deep underground shale formations in a way that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other independent environmental experts – including the Ground Water Protection Council – have deemed a safe and proven technique.

 

Large resources of this type of natural gas may exist in the Karoo, which is why Shell has applied to explore the area to find out if there are gas resources that can be recovered economically and responsibly.

 

We will drill up to 24 wells during the three-year exploration period and we will be using hydraulic fracturing on only a few of these wells. If we find there are gas resources that can be recovered economically and responsibly the production could ensue. It would take at least nine years before product could begin.

 

We recognize there are environmental concerns about our early plans in the Karoo that include the use of water, hydraulic fracturing and landowner compensation. These are explained in more detail in other briefing notes in the series.