The NGOs suing TotalEnergies for its oil megaproject in Uganda and Tanzania have asked for the postponement of the hearing scheduled for Wednesday in Paris, due to lack of time to respond to
the argumentation of the French group, they announced Tuesday in a statement.
“The most likely outcome is that this request for removal will be granted,” said a representative of Friends of the Earth, which is bringing this legal action with Survival and four Ugandan associations.
The six NGOs filed a lawsuit against TotalEnergies in October 2019. They accuse the energy group of carrying out its oil extraction projects in Uganda (Tilenga) and the construction of the corresponding pipeline (EACOP) without respecting the “duty of care” on the respect of human rights and
the environment, imposed by a pioneering French law in 2017.
Three years later, due to a first procedural battle, the hearing on the heart of this case is supposed to be held on Wednesday before a judge of the Paris court.
In late September, the NGOs sent TotalEnergies their arguments in this civil action, which was conducted mainly in writing. The arguments were about 100 pages long and based on dozens of documents (reports, testimonies, etc.).
“However, the oil group “only sent us its reply at 21:15 last night: a 95-page argument responding to our accusations, (with) about fifty new documents,” explained Juliette Renaud, Friends of the Earth.
“In 36 hours, it is simply impossible for our associations and lawyers to read everything, analyze and draft our counter-arguments which must be submitted to the judge in writing before the hearing to be taken into account,” she added.
“While there is an emergency on the ground for the affected communities, and we have been waiting for this hearing for so long, we were therefore forced this morning to ask the court for a postponement of the hearing to a later date, so that we can properly prepare for the debate
contradictory”, concludes the communiqué.
TotalEnergies claims that it has always respected the deadlines since the beginning of this legal battle and that it was forced to respond in two weeks to the arguments of the NGOs, which were largely modified from the beginning of the proceedings.
The judge is expected to say at the hearing whether he accepts this referral and if so, when.
