PETROLEUM RESOURCES: INPUT SOUGHT ON REVISED DRAFT FRACKING REGULATIONS AND RELATED REQUIREMENTS

PETROLEUM RESOURCES: INPUT SOUGHT ON REVISED DRAFT FRACKING REGULATIONS AND RELATED REQUIREMENTS

• 07 November 2025
• Environmental Law
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: Shortly after being gazetted, the PetroSA-developed onshore well decommissioning guidelines were withdrawn and replaced with a set attached to a notice calling for input by 7 December 2025.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has gazetted revised draft regulations on the exploration and production of onshore petroleum resources requiring fracturing technology – along with two sets of draft minimum information requirements ‘intended to support’ them. The deadline for public comments is 7 December 2025. In addition, the department has published onshore well decommissioning guidelines prepared by the South African Agency for the Promotion of Petroleum Exploration & Exploitation (PetroSA). It is not clear if input is also required on that document.

Informed by comments received on draft regulations released in July 2022, the revised proposals seek to prescribe:

• prohibited activities and areas
• restricted areas
• environmental obligations
• reporting obligations
• standards affecting:
  • well design and construction
  • cement requirements and compression tests
  • casing string tests
  • blowout prevention, and
  • well examination, and
• a raft of management and operational requirements.

Draft minimum information requirements for the exploration and production of onshore petroleum using fracturing technology seek:

• to identify and consolidate in one document ‘the assessment and reporting requirements of all decision-making authorities’
• to facilitate the combination of information thus prepared into ‘one consolidated assessment report to inform decision-making by all relevant … authorities’
• through one integrated public participation process, to facilitate consultation with stakeholders on the requirements of:
  • a consolidated assessment report
  • an integrated operational monitoring plan, and
  • an environmental management programme, and
• facilitate the submission of these documents to all decision-making authorities.

Proposed minimum information requirements for the baseline monitoring of onshore exploration operations incorporate input received on July 2022 draft minimum requirements for the submission of applications for an authorisation, right, permit or license for the onshore exploration of oil or gas intending to utilise hydraulic fracturing. In addition to consolidation and facilitation objectives similar to those outlined above, these draft minimum information requirements lay the ground rules for collecting baseline monitoring data for certain identified environmental themes.

The PetroSA-prepared draft onshore well decommissioning guidelines focus on managing and facilitating the closure of an onshore well at the end of its lifespan, mainly with the aim of minimising:

• the ‘risk of loss of hydrocarbon containment from hydrocarbon-bearing formations previously not in communication with the surface environment’
• the ‘risk of transfer of fluids between formations (crossflow) resulting in unnatural pressurisation or contamination of formations, including freshwater aquifers’, and
• the ‘risk of onshore wellheads and structures causing an obstruction or danger to other users of the land’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• draft regulations, informed by:
  • the July 2022 draft regulations
• draft minimum information requirements for the exploration and production of onshore petroleum using fracturing technology
• draft minimum information requirements for the baseline monitoring of onshore exploration operations, informed by:
  • July 2022 draft application-related information requirements
• PetroSA-developed decommissioning guidelines (withdrawn and replaced with a set on which comments are now sought)

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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