French company TotalEnergies said it is studying the South African court's ruling and will decide on its next steps.Stephane Mahe/Reuters
A South African court has blocked the environmental approval for an offshore oil and gas exploration project, ruling in part that TotalEnergies had failed to consider the project’s full impact on climate change.
The environmental assessment must consider not only the impact of the exploration itself, but also the future damage caused by emissions from any fossil fuels found in the project, the Western Cape High Court ruled.
Environmentalists hailed the ruling as a victory for local communities and for future generations that could be affected by climate damage as a result of emissions from the project’s eventual production.
The French company TotalEnergies, which is developing the offshore project with its partner Shell, said it is studying the court ruling and will decide on its next steps. An oil lobby group, the African Energy Chamber, complained that the court challenge was “disruptive” and “threatens to halt vital projects.”
While the court overturned the project’s environmental approval, it also ruled that TotalEnergies must be given an opportunity to revise the environmental assessment to fix its deficiencies.
TotalEnergies signs LNG deal as B.C. project’s pipeline costs soar to $12-billion
Shell-led LNG Canada faces problems as it ramps up production
TotalEnergies announced last year that it plans to exit from the project, leaving Shell as the main partner in the drilling. State-owned PetroSA holds a minority stake.
The offshore exploration block is located between Cape Town and Cape Agulhas in South Africa. It is part of a vast area known as the Orange Basin, off the western coast of South Africa and Namibia.
Most discoveries in the Orange Basin so far have been in Namibian waters, but companies have been ramping up their activities in the South African side, leading to a series of environmental challenges in court.
Last year, South African courts ruled that Shell had been unlawfully granted an exploration right for seismic surveys in another offshore project. They said Shell had failed to consult properly with communities in the environmentally sensitive Wild Coast region.
In the latest court case, Western Cape High Court Justice Nobahle Mangcu-Lockwood said the environmental assessment must consider the cumulative impact of the entire project, including its potential production of oil and gas, rather than just the exploration phase.
“Climate change is relevant to both exploration and production activities,” the judge said in her ruling.
“The two processes are intertwined,” she said. “It makes no sense to rely on the positive consequences of production stage for purposes of considering an application at exploration stage, only to resist considering the negative consequences of the production stage when it comes to consideration of climate change.”
Justice Mangcu-Lockwood also cited other deficiencies in the environmental authorization, including failures to consider the project’s possible cross-border harm in neighbouring countries and the potential social and economic impact on fishermen and coastal communities if there is a blowout or oil spill.
She said TotalEnergies had also failed to disclose the full versions of its contingency plans for oil spills and blowouts, making it difficult for communities to understand how the company would respond to a disaster.
“Even more problematic is the lack of public participation in connection with the process that is yet to ensue,” she said.
The court case was launched last year by two environmental groups, Natural Justice and the Green Connection, which challenged the South African government’s decision to give environmental approval to the project.
They said the court judgment this week was a landmark ruling.
“This is a significant win for transparency, precaution, and for the rights of coastal communities and small-scale fishers who refuse to be sidelined in decisions that affect their livelihoods and the future of our oceans,” Green Connection legal adviser Shahil Singh said in a statement on Thursday.