D3E joins ASX as it hunts natural gas and helium in South Africa

D3E Energy Ltd (ASX:D3E) – a natural gas and helium explorer with a flagship project in South Africa – will begin trading on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) at 11 am (AEST) today, having listed late last week, with shares priced at 20 cents.

The company was admitted to ASX’s Official List on Thursday and has raised $10 million for its launch through the offer under its prospectus – dated May 3 – with 50 million shares issued at the above price.

D3’s namesake project is built around a series of permits held within South Africa’s Free State Province, approximately 250 kilometres from Johannesburg, and immediately east of Renergen Ltd’s Viriginia Gas Field, which produces liquid natural gas.

The company initially intends to focus on exploration and potential development work at the Exploration Right ER315 permit, although it also holds permits including Exploration Right Application ERA341, Technical Co-operation Permit 240 and Technical Co-operation Permit 235.

D3E has highlighted anecdotal evidence of historic blowers within the ER315 territory producing methane gas for over forty years without any discernible pressure drop, although it acknowledges that there are no quantified studies to date.

Also ripe for exploration will be the Virginia Fault, which the company contends had yielded methane gas in nearby gold and gas projects.

Geologically speaking, the project territory lies within the eastern part of South Africa’s Greater Karoo Basin, a Permian aged large terrestrial and glacial basin which hosts the Ecca Group coal sequence. The latter contains multiple thin-bedded coal seams that have some coal seam gas potential.