In August 2025, a South African court canceled an environmental authorization granted to French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies and its joint venture partner Shell to drill offshore exploration wells. Now TotalEnergies is facing fresh legal challenges in South Africa for another proposed project. March 23 and 24, the Western Cape High Court is hearing an appeal application filed by a small-scale fishing cooperative and two environmental justice organizations. They are questioning the legality of an environmental authorization (EA) granted to TotalEnergies in South Africa’s deep-water Orange Basin Block. The block is located off the west coast of South Africa, between Port Nolloth and Hondeklip Bay, running between 188 and 340 kilometers (117 and and 213 miles) off South Africa’s western coastline. “TotalEnergies needs to go back to the drawing board and do the process again in the right way,” Walter Steenkamp, chairperson of the Aukotowa Fisheries Cooperative, one of the appeal applicants, told Mongabay over the phone. Steenkamp added that, apart from the long-term negative impacts of fossil fuel extraction to the marine environment and climate change, the company failed to consult with small-scale fishers on how the operations would affect them. In October 2024 the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) gave TotalEnergies the environmental go-ahead for the deep-water Orange Basin project. This environmental authorization was challenged by three South African-based NGOs: Aukotowa Fishing Cooperative, the Green Connection and Natural Justice. They argue that the decisions taken by the South African government are likely to cause significant…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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