Canadian oil boss talks about fracking

RONELLE RADEMEYERWINDHOEKThe giant drilling rig that Canadian oil company Reconnaissance Energy Namibia (ReconAfrica) plans to use to prospect for oil and gas southeast of Rundu is arriving at Walvis Bay today on board the cargo ship Yellowstone.This comes amid increasing pressure from environmental groups concerned about the extraction of fossil fuels and the impact it would have on the ecology of the delta, which is the largest Ramsar protected wetland in the world.In a strongly worded plea, Bishop Geoff Davies, patron of the Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute (Safcei), on Monday urged investors and private financiers to withdraw their backing of ReconAfrica.He said no company or government should invest in a company that extracts fossil fuels.“We know we must urgently cease the burning of fossil fuels. We don’t have ten years. We need to do this within the next year or two,” he wrote in an open letter.Davis said it was unbelievable that the governments of Namibia and Botswana had approved ReconAfrica’s plans.Drilling for oil and gas in the area would destroy the wildlife and geology of the Okavango delta, he wrote.“The project will destroy one of the world’s most sacred and scenic places. The drilling will mean the death of the Okavango Delta and the lifestyle of the San, its indigenous inhabitants.“If the project goes ahead, it would be tantamount to genocide,” Davies wrote.‘Many misconceptions’ReconAfrica founder and shareholder Craig Steinke told Republikein that there are many misconceptions about the company’s operations.“We won’t do fracking. We have no intention to do it, nor do we have the equipment or the budget for that,” he said.Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of forcing natural gas or oil from layers of shale rock deep below the earth’s surface.Wells are drilled five kilometres deep into the ground and then turned horizontally for two to three kilometres. Millions of litres of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, are injected into the wells at high pressure. The shale is cracked open and sand and liquid are forced into the tiny cracks. Natural gas, trapped in the rock, is released and returns to the surface with the fracking fluids, Safcei states on its website.According to Steinke, there is a lot of confusion about what his company does when it prospects for oil and gas.He said ReconAfrica would use “conventional drilling methods” to find petroleum deposits.According to Steinke, fracking was developed in the United States to extract petroleum from the bedrock in areas where more superficial deposits had already been extracted by conventional means.In earlier presentations to investors, ReconAfrica had said it would drill “hundreds of test wells” and apply “modern hydraulic fracturing” methods.Steinke told Republikein that these documents were based on the only available prospecting data for the area, which dates back to 1964.According to him, fracking is not economically viable, as conventional oil extraction is cheaper.Steinke said drilling would start in the first quarter of 2021. ReconAfrica aims to start production in 2022.ronelle@republikein.com.na

Canadian oil boss talks about fracking

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

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Canadian oil boss talks about fracking

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-04

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