TotalEnergies said it has launched a land acquisition assessment for controversial $10 billion projects in Uganda and Tanzania slammed by environmentalists.
TotalEnergies disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
“This mission will evaluate the land acquisition procedures implemented, the conditions for consultation, compensation and relocation of the populations concerned, and the grievance handling mechanism,” TotalEnergies said.
It also stated that its report would be submitted by April. Despite opposition from activists and environmentalists, TotalEnergies is pushing ahead with its Tilenga drilling project in Uganda and its 1,443-kilometer (900-mile) East African Crude Oil Pipeline to the coast of Tanzania.
Tilenga intends to drill 419 oil wells beneath the rich Murchison Falls nature reserve in western Uganda, raising concerns among opponents about the region’s fragile ecosystem and the people who live there.
TotalEnergies is working with Chinese oil company CNOOC on the plans and says on its website that going ahead would mean “relocating 775 primary residences and will affect a total of 18,800 stakeholders, including landowners and land users.”
However, Human Rights Watch called for the plans to be halted in July, claiming that they had already “devastated thousands of people’s livelihoods in Uganda.”.
The oilfield would “ultimately displace over 100,000 people,” it charged.
Four environmental groups have filed a criminal complaint on climate grounds against TotalEnergies in France.
TotalEnergies said Thursday it had named Benin’s former Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou to lead its land acquisition assessment, calling him a “recognised expert in African economic development.”
Zinsou has worked with TotalEnergies in the past through his consulting company.
