Introduction

The continental shelf of the Republic of South Africa covers some 200 000 km² and the country has a coastline approximately 3 000 km in length.

Petroleum Agency SA is responsible for the archive and management of the national exploration database and has catalogued all of the data and reports resulting from the drilling of more than 300 offshore and some 190 onshore boreholes The national hydrocarbon exploration database also include field and processed data for more than 290 000 line km's of 2-D and 10200 km² of 3-D seismic data that was acquired offshore and some 9800 km of seismic processed data that was acquired during the late 1960’s in the onshore Karoo, Algoa and Zululand onshore basins. All hydrocarbon exploration data belongs to the State. Permit or right owners that carry out exploration or production activities are required to supply all new, reprocessed data, results and information at relinquishment to the Agency for incorporation into the National Database.

Map A shows the blocks that were on offer during the 1994 license round. For convenience of reference to existing data, the old (1965) license blocks are also shown since borehole and seismic line designations refer to them. The latest degree license block system definitions are also defined as an overlay on the map.

Although data catalogues can be generated for any offshore geographical defined area, including listings of all the data available that is relevant to the assessment of each area, the data is herewith conveniently organized into geological basins and features:

Summary of wells by basin

Summary of seismics by basin

Generalised location map