TotalEnergies, accused of conducting an oil megaproject in Uganda and Tanzania in disregard of human rights and the environment, has an appointment on Wednesday before the Paris Court of Justice, summoned by six NGOs to comply with the law that imposes a “duty of vigilance” on its activities around the world.
The hearing on the merits of the case, the first brought since a pioneering 2017 law, is three years late due to a procedural battle ultimately lost by the oil and gas giant.
TotalEnergies was summoned in October 2019 by Friends of the Earth, Survie and four Ugandan associations.
They accuse the French group of not respecting the French law known as “Rana Plaza”, named after
the building that collapsed in 2013 in Bangladesh, killing more than 1,000 workers in garment factories serving major Western brands.
This law obliges multinationals to “prevent serious violations of human rights, health and safety of people and the environment” at their foreign subcontractors and suppliers, through a “vigilance plan”.
This plan must map risks and establish measures to prevent them. But its content is often considered insufficient by the associative world, which criticizes a deficient application of the law, for lack of
sanctions.
The civil judge can order the offending company to pay a financial penalty until it complies with its obligations.
– Local “Vive résistance” –
In the case of TotalEnergies, the six NGOs are targeting two colossal projects that are intrinsically linked: the “Tilenga” project, a drilling of 419 wells in Uganda, one third of which are in the Murchison Falls natural park; and the EACOP project (East African Crude Oil Pipeline), the longest heated pipeline in the world, intended to transport hydrocarbons from Tilenga to the Indian Ocean by crossing Tanzania over 1,445 km.
These projects entered the full construction phase in February, when TotalEnergies announced a $10 billion investment agreement with Uganda, Tanzania and China’s CNOOC to produce by 2025.
Discovered in 2006, Uganda’s reserves raised hopes of turning the region into an oil Eldorado.
They can last between 25 and 30 years with an estimated peak production of 230,000 barrels per day.
But these programs, condemned by the European Parliament, the Vatican and four UN special rapporteurs, “are strongly resisted by local populations,” say the NGOs, who are behind a new investigation report unveiled in early October.
“Total’s vigilance plan is totally lacking. And even when measures exist, the commitments are nice on paper but we see a complete gap in the field,” says Juliette Renaud of Friends of the Earth.
– Opponents arrested –
The expropriated people are supposed to receive “fair and prior compensation”, but in fact they are deprived of the free use of their land before”, continues the activist. “Some have been waiting for four years, others say they had to give in under duress.”
The project is also being attacked for its climate impact, estimated by NGOs to be “up to 34 million tons of CO2 per year,” “far more than the combined emissions of Uganda and Tanzania.
In Tanzania, a country renowned for its biodiversity, the pipeline “will impact the land of nearly 62,000 people and threaten more than 2,000 square kilometers of nature reserves” near Lake Victoria, they write.
Associations also regularly denounce the arrests of opponents and the risk of oil spills, in a region prone to tsunamis and earthquakes.
In response, TotalEnergies said that the project “represents a major development challenge for Uganda and Tanzania” and that it would “do its utmost to make it an exemplary project in terms of transparency, shared prosperity, economic and social progress, sustainable development, environmental awareness and respect for human rights.
The decision will be taken under advisement.
