Non-governmental organisations that are reportedly foreign-funded have blocked at least five oil and gas exploration projects worth billions of rands in South Africa.
This is according to the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe.
Mantashe revealed that since 2021, five upstream oil and gas projects have been halted or postponed due to legal challenges. Of these, three were halted or postponed in 2024 and two in 2021.
The total value of these projects is estimated to be between a minimum of $467 million (R8.36 billion) and a potential maximum of $1.6 billion (R28 billion).
“In summary, of the five projects impacted, two are located along the East Coast and three projects along the West Coast region,” Mantashe explained.
Shell’s offshore activities in South Africa have previously come under significant public criticism. Its exploration efforts along the country’s Wild Coast have also encountered legal obstacles.
Once again, these issues arise amid ongoing concerns that insufficient public consultation on seismic surveys could negatively impact the marine ecosystem.
In 2024, the Constitutional Court [The highest court in South Africa] ruled that the provincial High Court had unlawfully granted Shell the right to conduct seismic surveys off the Wild Coast.
