Its opponents do not hesitate to speak of a “climate bomb”. The French group TotalEnergies wants to dig new oil wells in Uganda and build a heated pipeline through Tanzania to bring the black gold to the sea. A megaproject carried out in disregard for human rights and the environment, according to six NGOs , who are suing the group. A first hearing on the merits is to be held on Wednesday, October 12, but the late communication of the company’s defense arguments could lead to its dismissal, at the request of NGOs, who want to have time to read it.
These associations are based on the law relating to the duty of vigilance, which obliges multinationals to “preventing serious violations of human rights, the health and safety of people and the environment” at their foreign subcontractors and suppliers, through a “vigilance plan”. They are not the only ones to worry: the project was singled out in September by the European Parliament and many scientists, such as climatologists Jean Jouzel and Valérie Masson-Delmotte, are calling for its abandonment in a forum at the World posted Monday, October 10. Franceinfo takes stock of this controversial project.
More than 400 wells and 1,400 km of pipeline
The TotalEnergies megaproject can be split into two. On the one hand, the “Tilenga” project, a drilling of 419 wells in Uganda, a third of which in the Murchison Falls National Park. On the other, the EACOP project (East African Crude Oil Pipeline), the longest heated oil pipeline in the world, intended to transport these hydrocarbons to the Indian Ocean, crossing Tanzania over 1,445 km. It is heated to 50°C to allow the oil to flow. Work began in February and TotalEnergies put 10 billion dollars (10.3 million euros) on the table, with the Chinese oil company CNOOC. The objective is to produce from 2025.
The company believes with AFP that its project “constitutes a major development challenge for Uganda and Tanzania”. The French group ensures to put “everything to make it an exemplary project in terms of transparency, shared prosperity, economic and social progress, sustainable development, environmental consideration and respect for human rights”.
A “climate bomb” and environmental
Basically, the project is denounced for its environmental impact. Part of the drilling is to be done in Murchison Falls National Park and poses a risk to the biodiversity that is home to Uganda’s largest and oldest natural park. “This activity will fragment the habitat of fauna and flora. Total minimizes the territorial occupation of the wells, but there are also the roads, all the round trips of the trucks”, deplores Juliette Renaud, campaign manager for the association Les Amis de la Terre. NGOs also fear the impact of possible oil spills on the Tanzanian coasts, an area subject to “at the risk of tsunami and cyclones”according to them.
From a climatic point of view, this project “is a huge middle finger to all those who are fighting against global warming after the terrible heat waves in Europe and the deadly floods in Pakistan”, believes MEP Pierre Larrouturou (New Deal). The elected official recalls that the International Energy Agency (IEA) – “not three jokers in their corner, but the highest authority on energy” – had estimated in 2021 (PDF, in English) that new fossil fuel exploitation projects should not be launched to achieve carbon neutrality and comply with the Paris Agreement.
The use by our societies of fossil fuels for travel, housing or food is indeed the main cause of the warming of our climate. It injects greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, etc.) into the atmosphere that trap heat. To limit this warming, our emissions must drop drastically. “If we do not manage to stop this project, up to 34 million tonnes of CO2 would be emitted each year for twenty-five or thirty years and would precipitate climate change and its procession of deadly disasters”write the scientists, elected officials and NGO signatories of the forum published Monday in The world.
Human rights violations denounced
Beyond the future environmental damage, the project is already causing social damage. The European Parliament expressed concern on 15 September about “human rights violations” committed against opponents of the project, in Uganda as in Tanzania, citing “arrests, acts of intimidation and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations”. In this non-binding text (in English)MEPs point to the risk of expulsion for 100,000 people without guaranteed compensation and call on Uganda, a country ruled since 1986 by Yoweri Museveni, to allow NGOs and journalists access to the area concerned.
In their various reports (see here and there, in PDF), the NGOs Friends of the Earth and Survie collected testimonies from farmers forced to give up their land under duress, with derisory compensation paid late. “These people find themselves deprived of the use of their land even before receiving compensation, they no longer have enough to eat and cannot send their children to school”, develops Juliette Renaud. Pierre Larrouturou, who went there in the summer of 2022, also collected such testimonies. “This project is being done in sordid conditions”he summarizes.