KEY POINTS
- South Africa’s Western Cape High Court halts TotalEnergies’ offshore oil project, citing a flawed environmental review.
- The French energy giant had planned up to seven new wells from 2026 in four offshore blocks.
- The ruling is a win for environmental groups and highlights growing legal pushback against fossil fuel expansion.
A South African court has thrown out environmental approval for an offshore oil and gas exploration project led by TotalEnergies, ruling that the French energy giant’s assessment failed to meet legal and public consultation standards.
The Western Cape High Court on Wednesday sided with a coalition of environmental groups that challenged the project’s review, calling it “deeply flawed” and deficient in addressing key ecological and legal risks. The decision halts one of the country’s most anticipated upstream energy ventures—at least for now—just as TotalEnergies was ramping up its ambitions in the region.
The ruling comes less than a day after reports surfaced that TotalEnergies is preparing a separate drilling campaign off South Africa’s coast, potentially involving as many as seven wells starting in 2026.
The Paris-based supermajor holds exploration rights in four offshore blocks, spanning the Deep Water Orange Basin, Orange Basin Deep, Outeniqua South, and Block 3B/4B to the east.
Court ruling deals blow to ambitious exploration drive
While the court has blocked the immediate project, it left the door open for TotalEnergies to reapply for environmental clearance, provided it addresses the deficiencies cited in the judgment. The company has not yet specified whether it will challenge the decision or restart the assessment process.
“We have some attractive licenses just across the border and we have actually two or three prospects, and we are working in South Africa—the process to get all the authorizations is quite a little long,” Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanné told analysts during the firm’s second-quarter earnings call last month. “But we hope to begin to drill South Africa targets in 2026.”
The South African projects come in the wake of a major discovery offshore Namibia, where TotalEnergies and partners found oil reserves estimated at around 3 billion barrels.
The Namibian strike has fueled optimism among energy executives that similar untapped reserves could lie beneath South Africa’s deepwater basins.
