2024-01-04 17:39:02
This should not calm the ardor of the opponents, but perhaps allow us to see things a little more clearly. TotalEnergies announced, Thursday January 4, the launch of a “assessment mission” on the land aspect of its oil projects in Uganda and Tanzania, Eacop and Tilenga, strongly contested by environmental, inter-religious and human rights associations.
It was entrusted to Lionel Zinsou, economist, investment banker and former Prime Minister of Benin (2015-2016). He is today the head of SouthBridge, a financial consulting company dedicated to Africa, but also president of the École Normale Supérieure Foundation and the left-wing think tank Terra Nova. A “personality recognized for his expertise in the economic development of Africa”with whom TotalEnergies has already collaborated, indicates the group in its press release.
Pharaonic and contested projects
His task does not look easy, as the criticisms are so strong. They match the scale of the projects, which include both the drilling of 419 wells (Tilenga project) in the Murchison Falls Natural Park, in Uganda, and the construction of the longest heated oil pipeline in the world (1,443 kilometers ), connecting the deposits of Lake Albert to the Tanzanian coast on the Indian Ocean. The investment made by TotalEnergies and the Chinese Cnooc is estimated at 10 billion dollars (9.12 billion euros), with a production objective that could rise to 230,000 barrels of oil per day.
In addition to the risks for biodiversity, associations have continued to denounce the displacement of the populations concerned as well as the expropriation and compensation measures.
According to TotalEnergies, the land acquisition program, “which is now coming to an end”, covered approximately 6,400 hectares. He “concerns 19,140 households and communities that own or use plots of land, and includes the relocation of 775 main residences”. To date, 98% of the households concerned have signed the compensation agreements, 97% have received their compensation and 98% of the households to be rehoused have taken possession of their new home, argues the energy company.
Several legal proceedings in progress
Disputed figures, according to the associations, which estimate that more than 118,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania are affected by total or partial expropriations.
In 2019, Friends of the Earth, Survie and four Ugandan NGOs took TotalEnergies to court, but their appeal was deemed inadmissible last year. New legal actions have been launched, and several associations initiated new civil action in June to demand “ repair “. A criminal complaint was also filed in September, “for acts resembling climaticide”.
The mission entrusted to Lionel Zinsou, who should submit his report by April, therefore aims to provide a response to all these accusations. The objective is to provide an outside perspective on the way in which the procedures were carried out, but also to resolve individual cases which would pose a problem, argues the group.
A mission entrusted to Jean-Christophe Rufin in Mozambique
TotalEnergies’ use of an external personality is not new. In December 2022, he asked the writer Jean-Christophe Rufin, former ambassador to Africa and co-founder of Médecins sans frontières, to assess the humanitarian situation in the province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique. The group has a very large gas project in the region, which was stopped in 2021, due to jihadist attacks.
The report notably recommended a series of improvements to be made, such as updating inventories of the property of affected people, the deadline for payment of compensation, the provision of agricultural land and even access to fishing zones. These recommendations have been heard, assures TotalEnergies, which has decided to create a foundation with a “ multi-year budget of $200 million », or 182 million euros.
Despite this, the group is the subject of a complaint filed in October by Friends of the Earth for ” manslaughter “ et ” no assistance to the person in danger “during a terrorist attack in Palma, in April 2021.
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