http://www.miningweekly.com/article/industry-stalwart-predicts-impact-of-us-shale-gas-revolution-on-africa-2012-11-30
"In an initial assessment commissioned in 2011, the US Energy Information Admini- stration (EIA) estimated that South Africa holds 485-trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas resources, mostly located in the semi-arid Karoo basin.
“With 1.1-million drilled holes in the US already, it is highly unlikely that the estimate won’t be close to reality,” Bewsey says, emphasising the reliability and precision of modern measurement techniques.
Using the EIA’s projected estimate, he has used the heat value of natural gas to quantify the value of South Africa’s estimated fracked gas supply, which he calculates to be R67-trillion.
Compared with the R88-billion that South Africa spent on crude oil imports in 2010, he further calculates that South Africa may, in theory, have 767 years of shale gas reserves, assuming the import rate does not fluctuate.
“Theoretically, the country will be able to stop oil imports, shut down its oil refineries and use gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology to convert fracked gas into liquid fuel for the next 767 years,” Bewsey says."
