AfrOil: South Africa gives green light to exploration drilling at Block 5/6/7

South Africa has given the French super-major TotalEnergies permission to drill for hydrocarbons in an offshore acreage, after dismissing an appeal by activists against the proposed work.

Reuters reported on October 2 that Minister of Forestry and Fisheries and Environmental Affairs Barbara Creecy had acknowledged the environmentalists’ concerns. But she said TotalEnergies and its partners have identified possible negative impacts of oil and gas drilling and have a plan to mitigate them.

“I 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,” Creecy said in the ruling, which was dated September 24.

Campaigners had appealed to her to set aside an environmental authorisation that TotalEnergies got from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy in April. They argued that marine noise and oil spills could affect the environment and further claimed that TotalEnergies had not sufficiently consulted the public.