UPDATE: Sasol In Joint Application To Explore In S Africa
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JOHANNESBURG -(Dow Jones)- Sasol Ltd. (SSL) has jointly applied to explore
onshore for petroleum in South Africa with Statiol ASA (STO) and Chesapeake
Energy Corp. (CHK), the Johannesburg company said Wednesday.
Exploration will focus on finding commercially recoverable shale gas resources
in the Karoo Basin in the central region of South Africa, Sasol said in an
emailed statement.
The petrochemicals company said an application submitted to the Petroleum
Agency SA Ltd., which is subject to approval from South Africa's government, is
expected to take about 12 months.
The Karoo Basin has unproved shale gas potential and significant exploration
efforts are required to assess this prospective resource, Sasol said. Shale gas
is natural gas produced from a type of sedimentary rock formed from clay and has
become an increasingly important source of natural gas in the U.S. over the past
decade.
-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848; robb.stewart@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
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