Cape Town - Community and environmental activists Green Connection South Africa are opposing TotalEnergies’ plans of oil exploration off SA's west coast.
The French explorer proposed to drill one well, which could result in an additional nine depending on the success of the first drilling.
At its closest point, the area of interest is the Deep Water Orange Basin is situated offshore between Port Nolloth and Hondeklip Bay, 188 kilometres from the coast, in water that can reach depths of up to 3 000 metres.
Community and environmental activists Green Connection SA have since blocked and increasingly opposed seismic surveys and Total’s plans of moving forward with this activity.
The recent activists’ calls comes at a time where Wild Coast communities and non-profit organisations had asked the court to block the proposed seismic survey by Shell in their area, in which they believe that it would cause irreparable harm to the environment, as well as to livelihoods and cultural and spiritual practices of communities.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Green Connection SA’s strategic lead, Liz McDaid, said that they were confused as to why they are getting many applications in quest to drill oil and gas off the South African Coast at time where the country is supposed to be doing a transition from away from fossil fuel towards a green energy plan.
With suggestions that the oil drilling in the coastal areas might assist the country in ending the load shedding, she said she doesn’t think the plans would end load shedding because it might take Total a period of 10 years to get one well leading to a production level and putting the gas out.
“The question you have to ask yourself is who is going to buy this gas? Is it going to be South Africans? ... because gas is something that is an international commodity meaning that when you are selling it internationally you will be getting the best price.”
“Because of the Ukraine-Russia war gas is very high and it’s the nice thing to sell and by selling it you make a lot of money,” she said.
She also highlighted that whether South African citizens will benefit from international companies coming here to drill gas is debatable and once those companies leave the burden will be on local communities losing their jobs.
“Right now there are people working along the coast and earning a living and those who are visiting these areas during holidays uplifting this area’s economy and all of that will now be put at risk,” she said.
She further said that the exploration would result in more environmental damage and the country needs an energy plan to regulate such planned activities.
IOL