TotalEnergies has been given environmental permission by the department of mining and energy to conduct oil and gas exploration off the coast of the Western Cape.
SLR Consulting, TotalEnergies’ environmental advisers, announced on Thursday that the company is authorized to drill up to five exploration wells in Blocks 5/6/7 off the coast of South Africa.
On Monday, the agency notified TotalEnergies of its choice. The authorization will be suspended while any appeals are being considered, and interested and impacted parties have 20 days to file appeals with the department and the departments of forestry, fishery, and the environment.
Civil society group The Green Connection has indicated it plans to submit an appeal.
“We are really disappointed to find that the exploration license has been approved. We don’t believe that we should be exploring for any more fossil fuels. The approval flies in the face of the climate crisis,” said Liziwe McDaid, the group’s strategic lead.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy said the reasons for its decision were that “most of the potential impacts associated with normal drilling operations range from negligible to low significance with mitigation.”
The drilling is planned to start between the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2024.
The department also determined that the public participation process it followed to compile an environmental impact assessment for the project was compliant with relevant regulations.
The authorization grants TotalEnergies the right to conduct exploration activities across an area of about 10,000 km2 at a depth of between 700m and 3,200m.
The area lies between Cape Town and Cape Agulhas, about 60km from the shore at its closest point.
Total Energies holds rights to the exploration block, along with Shell and PetroSA.
The granting of an exploration license to Shell to conduct seismic blasting along the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape was challenged successfully last year by a group of applicants that included environmentalists and community organizations.
According to a September high court decision in Makhanda, Shell and Impact Africa’s exploration authority under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act to perform seismic surveys off the ecologically fragile Wild Coast was illegally awarded by the minister.
Shell, Impact Africa, and the minister of mineral resources and energy were eventually given permission to appeal by the court. The Supreme Court of Appeal is anticipated to hear the case later this year.
