The legal bid launched by Aukotowa Fisheries Co-operative, The Green Connection, and Natural Justice was heard by the Western Cape High Court last week on Monday (23/3) and Tuesday. The parties are opposed to offshore drilling, citing South Africa's climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement, amongst other notable reasons for their opposition. 

Green Connection community outreach coordinator, Neville van Rooy, tells the OFM Business Hour their case is fundamentally about good governance and responsible decision-making by government. They maintain the voice of the fishing community was not included in the environmental impact assessment process, making it incomplete.

It isn’t the first exploratory project along the Deep Water Orange Basin (DWOB) to be legally and at times successfully challenged by conservation groups. 

The environmental authorisation previously awarded to Shell to drill in the highly prospective Orange Basin, under the Northern Cape Ultra Deep (NCUD) oil and gas exploration project, was also challenged by conservationist groups. Oil and gas exploration in this block is being viewed as the key to South Africa’s energy challenges.

When probed on whether the issue is the public consultation processes or offshore drilling entirely, Van Rooy says they are opposed to these explorative efforts in the region.

The Deep Water Orange Basin (DWOB) lies along the Atlantic margin, off South Africa’s west coast. While TotalEnergies holds extensive exploration rights in the area, it continues to face strong resistance from conservation groups. According to SLR Consulting, the proposed offshore exploration campaign entails offshore drilling of up to seven (7) exploration and/or appraisal wells, including:

• Vertical seismic profiling (VSP): Using special equipment to analyse the wells;
• Testing the wells to learn more about the oil and gas; and
• Plugging and abandonment: Sealing the wells when investigations are done.

There is concern that the risks associated with deep-water drilling have not been sufficiently assessed, warning that existing emergency response capacity in Saldanha Bay may be inadequate to deal with an incident at those depths, explains Van Rooy. 

Legislative ambiguities at the heart of court bids

Experts like Dr Ross Compton from the EnerGEO Alliance warn that energy security remains a big concern for South Africa. Whilst loadshedding has diminished from its peak in 2023, the fundamental issues prevail: demand is still increasing; the population is growing and urbanising; and electricity supply is challenged by supply as well as maintenance issues.

When looking at gas, there is a pending gas cliff. Most of South Africa’s natural gas comes from Mozambique, and those supplies are diminishing with a drop-off anticipated in 2028, explains Compton. When this happens, the country could end up exposed to price volatility, opening up space for local production. “If we can deal with delays with upstream approvals, this can bode well for the South African economy,” he stresses.

Court cases like the one against TotalEnergies have highlighted the legal ambiguity surrounding greenlit environmental authorisation processes for oil and gas projects in the DWOB.

Compton argues that where companies have met all the requirements of the environmental impact assessments, consultations, and processes, there should be some certainty in those authorisations granted by the relevant body, which in this case is the department of forestry and fisheries. All ambiguity, particularly around stakeholder consultation, specifically identifying affected parties, should be cleared up in the Environmental Management Act, he stresses.

OFM Business Hour sm