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 Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe told Reuters. "The economy needs a growth trigger and oil and gas are those triggers."

South Africa favours gas as it attempts to shift from more polluting coal-fired plants that supply the bulk of its electricity requirements.

The regulations on shale gas will provide a framework to control environmental and safety concerns, including water challenges, associated with fracking in the semi-arid Karoo region.

South Africa, the continent's most advanced economy, relies on piped gas from Mozambique to supply industrial users and needs new supplies as those fields are depleted.

The country's first liquefied natural gas import terminal is being developed at Richards Bay.

The Petroleum Agency of South Africa estimates the Karoo Basin holds around 209 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable shale gas resources.

However, a 2017 study by geologists at University of Johannesburg said the amount ranged between 13 tcf and 390 tcf and was probably close to the lower end of that range.