After a tumultuous general meeting, TotalEnergies is playing extra time in Nigeria

2023-05-29 11:56:00

Weaning off fossil fuels may take time. The French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies announced on Monday May 29 the renewal for 20 years of a production license in a deepwater block off the coast of Nigeria. This renewal concerns the OML 130 block, located 150 km offshore, which “contains the prolific fields of Akpo and Egina, which came into production in 2009 and 2018 respectively”, specifies the company in a press release.

Production there reached 282,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day last year, of which around 30% was gas, then liquefied in the Nigeria LNG plant, indicates TotalEnergies, which owns 24% of this block of which it is the owner. ‘operator. The block also contains the Preowei oil field, which was discovered there.

“This 20-year extension will allow us to launch engineering studies (FEED) on the Preowei project, which aims to enhance a discovery by connecting it to existing facilities,” said Max Ndong-Nzue, Africa Director for the exploration-production at TotalEnergies, quoted in the press release. NNPC, the Nigerian national oil company, announced on May 25 a renewal of the production sharing contract on block OML 130.

A general meeting under tension

TotalEnergies’ investments in fossil resources, the use of which is essentially responsible for climate change, are under the surveillance in particular of associations and activists, some of whom tried unsuccessfully on Friday to block the general meeting of shareholders of the group.

The pill is getting worse and worse, including among the shareholders. Admittedly, 89% of investors voted in favor of the group’s Climate resolution on Friday, the same percentage as last year. But, surprise: 30.44% of them finally approved another resolution tabled by the activists of Follow This, calling on the company to align all of its indirect CO2 emissions, the famous “Scope 3” , on a trajectory compatible with the Paris climate agreement..

Climate: the government puts pressure on TotalEnergies

The oil giant in court

A few days following its tumultuous general assembly, TotalEnergies finds climate activists on Wednesday in the Paris court: a coalition of NGOs and communities, including the cities of Paris and New York, asks the courts to compel the oil and gas giant to align its climate strategy on the Paris agreement.

The judges’ decision on this issue is not expected before 2024 or even 2025. But the hearing scheduled before the 5th civil chamber of the judicial court, will be, unless further postponed, the first opportunity to see the coalition and the French group sharpen their arguments on this case, which dates back to June 2019.

In the long term, the coalition – which brings together six NGOs such as Sherpa and France Nature Environnement, and sixteen communities, including the cities of Grenoble, Bayonne or Nanterre – hopes to one day obtain a French equivalent of the condemnation of Shell in the Netherlands. In 2021, a court condemned the British oil giant to accelerate its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

(With AFP)