Tsvetana Paraskova <\/b><\/p>\n
Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>South Africa has dismissed an appeal against TotalEnergies\u2019 offshore drilling plans, allowing the French supermajor to explore for oil and gas in a block off its southwest coast, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a ruling by the environment minister Barbara Creecy.<\/p>\n TotalEnergies has been looking to explore for oil and natural gas in Block 5\/6\/7, located offshore the southwest coast of South Africa, between Cape Town and Cape Agulhas.<\/p>\n TotalEnergies is proposing to drill up to five offshore wells on the block.<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs Ignores Activist Call To Abandon Oil And Gas<\/p>\n In April, South Africa\u2019s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy granted environmental authorization to TotalEnergies and its partners to drill in the block. But lobby groups and individuals appealed the decision, asking the minister \u2013 who sits as the appellate authority \u2013 to void the environmental consent due to climate change, potential oil spills, and a lack of adequate public consultation.<\/p>\n In a ruling dated at the end of September, Minister Creecy wrote, as carried by Reuters, \u201cI am therefore satisfied that the impacts of noise and light have been adequately assessed and mitigated to ensure low impacts on the receiving environment. As such this ground of appeal is dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n South Africa is one of TotalEnergies\u2019 two targeted frontier exploration areas offshore Africa\u2014the other one is offshore Namibia, which analysts say could have the potential to become the new Guyana for oil and gas exploration and discoveries.<\/p>\n TotalEnergies and Shell have already made large discoveries offshore Namibia.<\/p>\n TotalEnergies made a significant discovery of light oil with associated gas on the Venus prospect in the Orange Basin early last year. Venus in Namibia could be a \u201cgiant oil and gas discovery,\u201d TotalEnergies said in an investor presentation in September 2022.<\/p>\n Last year’s massive deepwater discoveries, Shell\u2019s Graff and TotalEnergies\u2019 Venus, could be transformational for Namibia, the southern neighbor of OPEC member Angola, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie has said.<\/p>\n For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tsvetana Paraskova Africa-Press – South-Africa. South Africa has dismissed an appeal against TotalEnergies\u2019 offshore drilling plans, allowing the French supermajor to explore for oil and gas in a block off its southwest coast, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a ruling by the environment minister Barbara Creecy. TotalEnergies has been looking to explore for oil and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":54410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-54411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\n