CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -South Africa will lift a long-standing moratorium on shale gas exploration as soon as new regulations, expected this month, are published, the petroleum resources minister said on Thursday.

A ban imposed in 2011 stopped the regulator from processing new applications for reconnaissance permits, as well as exploration and production rights in response to a public outcry and court action by environmental campaigners concerned about the impact of hydraulic fracking in the ecologically sensitive Karoo region.

Earlier on Thursday a post-cabinet statement said the country’s environment minister had finalised shale gas regulations and they would be published before the end of October.

“Once those regulations are gazetted, I lift the moratorium,” Minister of Mineral and Petr

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