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The energy crisis encourages TotalEnergies to look for new fossil fuels. The group wants to operate two gas fields off the coast of South Africa. Environmental NGOs denounce the devastation that this would produce on the ecosystem.
It is off the coast of South Africa that TotalEnergies wants to drill at a depth of 1,700 meters to reach two large gas deposits in the Brulpadda area, approximately 175 km from the coast. But according to environmental protection NGOs, these operations would threaten biodiversity. The migration route of whales, killer whales and even marine fauna passes through this sector.
“Installing large industrial infrastructures in a place where there is a lot of marine life (…) obviously means directly impacting, through the installation, noise and seismic surveys, all of this marine life”explains Claire Nouvian, founder of the Bloom association. TotalEnergies has already carried out exploration drilling, with a platform to know the extent of the reserves. Faced with the controversy, the French company affirms on the contrary that this new project will benefit South Africa: it is a question of replacing coal with gas, which is less polluting. But criticism is increasingly strong against Total’s investments in Africa in fossil fuels, and not enough in renewables.