Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002)

Regulations

Amendment Regulations to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Regulations, 2020

Chapter 7 : Environmental Impact Assessment

89. Assessment of related seismicity

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(1)An applicant or holder must, prior to conducting hydraulic fracturing, assess the risk of potential hydraulic fracturing related seismicity and submit a risk assessment report and the proposed mitigation measures to the designated agency for approval and recommendation by the Council for Geoscience and the risk assessment report must, as a minimum, identify—
(a)stressed faults which must be avoided in the fracturing process;
(b)fracture behaviour of targeted formations; and
(c)the site-specific seismic monitoring to be undertaken pre-fracturing, during operation and post fracturing including the monitoring and reporting frequency.

 

(2)An applicant or holder must carry out site-specific surveys prior to hydraulic fracturing to characterise local stress regimes and identify proximal faults and the site characterisations must at least include—
(a)desktop studies of existing geological maps;
(b)seismic reflection and refraction data where available;
(c)available background seismicity data;
(d)stress data from proximal boreholes where available; and
(e)other relevant available geophysical data, such as gravity.

 

(3)The risk assessment report contemplated in subregulation (1) and the site-specific surveys contemplated in sub-regulation (2) must be submitted to the competent authority, for consideration, as part of the application for Environmental Authorisation.

 

(4)The assessment of the orientation and slip tendency of faults and bedding planes may be done once faults have been identified and geological stress regimes characterised.

 

(5)The holder must mitigate risks of fault movement by identifying stressed faults by preventing fracturing fluids from entering stressed faults.

 

(6)The holder must test fracture a targeted formation in a given well by using small pre- fracturing injection tests with micro-seismic monitoring.

 

(7)A holder must, following pre-fracturing injection tests contemplated in subregulation (6), investigate whether seismic activity occurs and then modify subsequent hydraulic fracturing operations.

 

(8)The holder must undertake seismic monitoring at the site for a period of 3 years after hydraulic fracturing activities have ceased and include the results of the seismic monitoring in the monitoring report  contemplated in subregulation (1)(c).

 

[Regulation 89 inserted by section 2 of Notice No. R. 466 dated 3 June 2015]