Cape Town - South Africa granted Royal Dutch Shell the right
to explore for oil and gas in the Orange Basin off the country’s west coast,
the company said on Friday.
“The deep-water portion of the Orange Basin has evidence of
source rocks which have the potential for significant commercial oil and gas
discoveries, although it is as yet largely unexplored,” Shell said.
Shell holds 100% of the license and will invest between $15-25m to explore in the basin over the next three years, it added. The exploration area covers just over 37 000 square kilometres.