Shell Block Northern Cape Ultra Deep Exploration Drilling ESIA, West Coast, South Africa

Shell Offshore Upstream South Africa B.V. (Operator) and its Joint-Venture (JV) partners jointly hold an Exploration Right for Licence Block Northern Cape Ultra Deep (NCUD). The Operator is applying to undertake exploration and appraisal activities within Licence Block NCUD. The proposed activities within Licence Block NCUD include drilling up to 5 exploration and/or appraisal wells, vertical seismic profiling (VSP), well testing, plugging and abandonment of wells and associated geophysical surveys.

Block NCUD is located off the West Coast of South Africa, roughly between Port Nolloth and Saldanha Bay. The Block is approximately 300 km offshore, in water depths between 2 500 m and 3 200 m. The Area of Interest for drilling is approximately 5 254 square kilometres in extent.

Prior to the commencement of the Proposed Project, an Environmental Authorisation in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014, (GN R 982 of 2014), promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (No. 107 of 1998) from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) is required.

SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (SLR), an independent firm of Environmental Assessment Practitioners, has been appointed by Shell to manage the environmental authorisation processes.

Status

The Shell NCUD ESIA is currently in the Scoping Phase. The Final Scoping Report has been complied and was submitted to the DMPR for review and acceptance on 22 August 2024.

The Final Scoping Report has been compiled with due consideration of the requirements of the EIA Regulations 2014 (as amended), as well as comments received from Interested and Affected Parties (I&APs) during the Draft Scoping Report review and comment period (8 July to 8 August 2024). For responses to comments received during the review and comment period, please refer to the Comments and Responses Report (Appendix D9).

To register as an I&AP, please contact SLR using the details provided above.

By providing your personal information to submit a comment, you will be included in the SLR an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) database, and you consent to SLR managing your information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. It is assumed that as an I&AP for this Project you authorise SLR to retain and use your Personal Information as part of a contact database for this and/or other Social and Environmental Impact Assessments (ESIA) and that you confirm your acceptance for SLR to contact you regarding this and/or other ESIA processes. SLR will not process your Personal Information, other than as permitted or required by ESIA processes, or as required by law or public policy. SLR will use reasonable, appropriate security safeguards to protect Personal Information, and to reasonably prevent any damage to, loss of, or unauthorised access or disclosure of Personal Information, other than as required for ESIA processes or as required by any Law or public policy. You may request for your Personal Information to be deleted from the I&AP database at any time by contacting SLR.