The Karoo Basin in South Africa is one of the undiscovered shale gas reserves, and to this end a team of gas exploration experts want to uncover this potential jackpot. The three companies that are collaborating in this venture are Sasol LTD, the South African based oil and gas company, Statoil ASA, the largest gas and oil producer in Norway, and Chesapeake Energy Corp.
They submitted an application for rights to the Karoo Basin and the approval process is expected to take about a year. Once they have received approval, the next step is to perform various seismic and geographical analyses, and then the plan is to begin drilling for gas. The shale rock located far beneath the surface is more costly to develop than conventional methods, but Statoil is one of the companies along with BP Plc, that is trying to develop new resources to make up for the maturing ones in the North Sea and other areas, including the Barnett Shale in Dallas.
The shale gas in the Karoo Basin is going to need a lot of wells in order to produce the gas required. In November 2008, Statoil recognized the drop in gas prices and saw the decline in natural gas resources. They have dropped by 12 percent this year, with September bringing a 7 year low. This is why Statoil bought a 32.5 percent stake in the Marcellus Shale formations in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia from Chesapeake. The two companies have been searching for natural gas alternatives for the past year as per their agreement, following the International Energy Agency’s statistics mentioning that by 2015 the global market will be oversupplied by more than 200 billion cubic meters of gas.
So far, at Marcellus, 39 wells have been drilled with 32 of them producing, making the total production reach 15 500 barrels of oil equivalent per day. This is a rise from 3000 barrels equivalent per day in November 2008. The company expects the total equivalent to reach 50 thousand by 2012 and about 200 thousand by 2020.
This spells great news for the gas production in South Africa. It also means plenty of gas production jobs in drilling, surveying, engineering, gas refinery and more. If you are interested in finding out more about these gas and oil jobs and want to become involved in the exploration of the Karoo Basin, you should become a member of Oil Job Finder today. Here you can learn all about gas production and working in the oil and gas industry.
You will get detailed information about what your earning potential is for each job, as well as what your working hours and conditions will be like. If you think you have what it takes, and you want to earn a good salary, then you should set your mind to it and apply for a job working in gas or oil. You can get advice about drawing up a perfect resume when you join the website and also have access to the most current gas and oil jobs.
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