APA-Pretoria (South Africa) French energy major TotalEnergies is now free to drill in South Africa’s offshore for gas and oil after Pretoria rejected a last-minute appeal from over a dozen individuals and lobby groups to stop it from exploration, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy has announced.
The individuals and lobby groups said they intended to challenge the decision on the grounds of environmental concerns ranging from marine noise and oil spills to climate change and insufficient public consultation, according to a letter they wrote to the ministry.
The letter followed the environmental authorisation granted to the energy company by the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy in April.
However, Creecy dismissed the appeal to stop TotalEnergies from drilling in Block 5/6/7 off the Cape coast, saying that she was “satisfied that the impacts of noise and light have been adequately assessed and mitigated to ensure low impacts on the receiving environment.”
TotalEnergies, which discovered two massive gas fields off South Africa in 2019 and 2020, did not respond to a request for comment from the press following the latest battle.
The company’s area of interest in the block covers some 10,000 km2 and is located roughly between Cape Town and Cape Agulhas, some 60 km from the coast at its closest point and 170 km at its farthest – in water depths between 700 metres and 3,200 metres, according to an earlier report.
TotalEnergies – the operator with a 40% stake, and partners Shell, also with 40%, and national oil company Petro South Africa holding the remaining 20% – propose drilling up to five exploration wells in the block, the report said.
Plans were at an advanced stage for the first well to be drilled early next year, it added.
NM/jn/APA