Rhino Oil assures residents of ‘non-invasive’ strategy

Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration, who recently held a series of community meetings in the area to gauge public opinion on their proposal to drill for oil and gas across over 2-million hectares of land in Northern KZN, have sought to allay fears of environmental destruction.

In an e-mail interview with the Courier, Phillip Steyn, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration, assured readers that the company ‘takes all environmental impact issues very seriously. With this in mind, we have brought in a leading independent and employee-controlled international environmental consultancy, SLR Consulting. SLR has an unrivalled reputation for providing an exceptionally high level of quality to its global work. Through our engagement with SLR, the public will know we are in full compliance with the requirements of the Regulator’s prescribed process.”

Mr Steyn said more than 85 percent of state-owned Eskom Holdings’ generation capacity is from coal-fired power plants, as a result the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in Africa, with less than one percent of power supplied by true re-newables primarily from hydropower.

Non-invasive
“Rhino Oil and Gas Exploration, is currently seeking approval to begin the initial stages of a non-invasive, three-year evaluation process which will determine where there are domestic oil and gas resources available that might one day be able to be safely developed in order to benefit the people and economy of South Africa.
“We are a technology-driven, independent oil and gas exploration and development company focused on Africa. Based in Texas, we are working with a number of partners on the ground in South Africa.
“We currently hold the permits and are applying for rights to two offshore areas, totalling more than 28,000 square kilometres, as well as five onshore areas, totalling nearly 74,000 square kilometres, within the country.
“Rhino is also actively pursuing concessions across other parts of the continent where there are under-explored plays in basins that have proved productive oil and gas assets.

“We significantly expanded our African footprint recently with the acquisition of two offshore blocks in the Comoros territorial waters off Mozambique in East Africa and the signing of Production Sharing Agreements in the AGC Senegal/Guinea-Bissau Cooperation Zone in West Africa. In addition to these positions, we hold two offshore blocks in Namibia, one of them bordering the Kudu Field.

“This is an exciting time for Rhino. We strongly believe South Africa’s oil and gas resources can one day enhance prosperity for the country’s communities by helping alleviate the current, crippling national power crisis by providing a cleaner, dependable, reliable and affordable source of energy.
“We also are confident their development will create highly skilled technical jobs, move the country away from its dependence on coal and provide significant benefits to the nation’s communities in areas such as education and health.”