There is much that you can do to help:

These ideas are specific to RSA but are applicable to any country with a coast experiencing oil and gas development.

Let the legislators hear you.

• Get to know your national petroleum agency such as PASA (Petroleum Agency of South Africa) in RSA. Find out what the next oil and gas development project will be.

• If the Applicant requires a permit for RECONNAISSANCE/ SEISMIC SURVEY permit remember that currently there is no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) necessary for seismic surveys, which is why your role as a member of the public is so vital in ensuring that the oil companies act responsibly.

• Register as an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) with the environmental consultant the applicant/ oil corporation has hired for this project. All you have to do is send a mail to the chosen environmental consultant and ask to be one.

• Respond to all information they send you timeously

• There will be an opportunity for I&APs to make comments or objections. Your comments will not be construed as objections unless you state that they are objections. See an example (A) Link to open example letter A

• If this survey goes ahead, place an objection.

• If it still goes ahead then place an appeal with the Department of Mineral Resources.

• If the Applicant requires a permit for EXPLORATION DRILLING

• Register as an I&AP

• Make comments on the environmental consultants Scoping Report, which isolates what will and won’t be dealt with in the EIA report. See an example (B) Link to open example letter B

• The environmental consultants will produce a Draft EIA and should accommodate your comments/objections within this.

• The environmental consultants will produce a Final EIA and thereafter there is a short period for appeal.

• Then goes to PASA and a decision is made.

• An application for oil& gas EXTRACTION permit follows the same process as EXPLORATION

Become a member of Oceans Not Oil

Established during the making of Becoming Visible, dedicated to ensuring the establishment of environmental legislation to govern the mitigation of marine seismic surveys in South African waters. The basis of this legislation should be informed by science, the precautionary principle and the public trust doctrine, not economics.