Reports suggesting there are "only 13-trillion cubic feet (tcf)" of gas in the Karoo need some empirical context (Tests reveal less Karoo shale gas than expected, September 28). The whole point of early drilling is to drill for data, not gas. With sound data we can have a meaningful basis for informed discussions and decisions, not asymmetrical and sometimes emotional ones. What we have here is just one empirically relevant data set (the 13tcf case) and other modelled possibilities like the original 390tcf "gas in place". It is always the case that "gas in place" numbers are much higher than what is, in fact, technically recoverable. Two holes were drilled under the moniker Karin (Karoo Research Initiative), intentionally outside the targeted licence areas and at the edges of the basin, which would likely suggest low readings. The result is exactly as expected. The core drills gave new core information for largely post-graduate geoscience students to study and also tested whether So...
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