Two organizations have lodged their objections to an application by ReconAfrica to amend its environmental clearance certificate to cater for a new area that it intends to start drilling additional exploration wells.
The Legal Assistance Centre and Frack Free Namibia have both raised objections with the Environment Commissioner over plans by the Canadian oil exploration company to explore for oil in the Kavango.
Frack Free Namibia in its objection letter alleges that ReconAfrica’s current updated Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) “is based on a deeply flawed initial EIA process and as such cannot be updated.”
It also raises concern that it has not received, “appropriate notification, invitation or opportunity to be included in public consultation regarding the drilling of the proposed additional wells.”
But what is an environmental clearance certificate and what does amending it mean?
An environmental clearance certificate (ECC) is document issued by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism through the Environment Commissioner to companies planning to carry out various activities indicating that it’s satisfied that the activity in question will not have an overly negative impact on the environment and the certificate may set certain conditions for the activity, to prevent or to minimize harmful impacts on the environment.
In the case of ReconAfrica, it was issued with an ECC in 2019 for the drilling of multiple stratigraphic (study) wells, and it has lodged an application to amend the certificate to cater for drilling sites within their exploration license area also known as their area of interest.
Amending the certificate is the process of asking the Environment Commissioner for permission to start drilling the existing land cover by the ECC, in additional locations and does not affect the validity of the existing ECC
What does the objection mean?
The objections lodged do not stop ReconAfrica from carrying out its existing exploration activities. It is for the environmental commissioner to scrutinize the objections, the decision to allow the amendment lies with the environmental commissioner.
Why the need for additional drilling?
ReconAfrica, according to their Petroleum Agreement with the Namibian government, is obligated to carry out exploration activities in the form of stratigraphic wells and seismic activities. In oil exploration, additional drilling is required to secure additional information to satisfy a company’s initial data of the existence of minerals and in the case of ReconAfrica, oil and gas.
Each well and seismic phase leads the company on their further sites.
What happens now?
ReconAfrica can continue with its exploration activity covered by the existing ECC once they have been granted the amendment. No new EIA or ECC is needed.
The ECC in the case of ReconAfrica does not have a limit on how many wells or locations that the company can drill, as it provides for the drilling of multiple wells within PEL 73.
