Anglo Coal on Botswana gas hunt

Brendan Ryan | Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:40
[miningmx.com] -- ANGLO Coal has embarked on a major exploration drive to prove the existence of sufficient coal bed methane (CBM) gas reserves in Botswana to feed a proposed gas-to-liquids synthetic fuel plant.

The aim is to delineate gas reserves totalling at least 4 trillion cubic feet (tcf), which will be sufficient to justify construction of a dedicated synfuels plant.

Lesser volumes of reserves could be used to supply the synthetic fuel plant Sasol is considering building in the Waterberg, next to the South Africa-Botswana border.

Anglo Coal is already conducting gas exploration activities in the Waterberg, where it hopes to find up to one tcf of reserves.

The exploration work is taking place in the far north and north-east of Botswana. This is well away from the region under investigation by other coal and gas groups, which lies mainly in the south-east of the country.

Anglo Coal has a major drilling camp 50 km north of Nata - just off of the Nata to Kazangula main road - and another about 100 km north, near the Pandamatenga border post between Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Anglo Coal SA CEO Ben Magara said: “We are excited about our gas exploration projects, which add to our overall Anglo Coal growth strategy. We see coal bed methane as one of the most viable energy sources for the future, particularly for the southern African region.”

Magara said Anglo Coal started exploring for coal bed methane in Botswana in 2007, and has been granted 34 prospecting licences by the ministry of minerals, energy and water affairs.

The main exploration regions lie north of Nata, extending towards Pandamatenga and Kasane, but Anglo Coal also has permits to explore an extensive region north-east of the Okavango Delta.

This area extends up to the border of Namibia on the Caprivi Strip and along the Linyanti River.

In addition, there is another large group of permits held by the Rainbow Gas Joint Venture licence group next to the eastern boundary of the Central Kalahari game reserve.

Magara said exploration activities were “ongoing” in the Nata, Pandamatenga and Central Kalahari regions.

“All projects are at the early reconnaissance phase that involves continuous acquisition of geological information and drilling, to build a regional geological model of the areas and assess the CBM potential,” he said.