TEEPSA - Deep Water Orange Basin (DWOB) Exploration Drilling EIA off the West Coast of South Africa

TotalEnergies EP South Africa S.A.S. (TEEPSA) is the operator of, and holder of an Exploration Right (ER) for, Licence Block Deep Water Orange Basin (DWOB) (see black outline in adjacent figure). Block DWOB is about 200 km from the shore in very deep water (2 000 m and 3 200 m deep) between Port Nolloth and Saldanha Bay.

In 2023, TEEPSA received authorisation to explore for oil and gas in the northern part of the Licence Block. TEEPSA now want to explore for oil and gas in a new Area of Interest within the southern part of the Licence Block. The Area of Interest (AoI; yellow shaded area) where TEEPSA plan to explore is almost 15 000 km2.

TEEPSA is planning to do several activities to explore this area:

• Exploration drilling of up to seven wells to find out if there is oil and gas;
• Vertical seismic profiling; VSP (Use special equipment to check the wells);
• Testing the wells to learn more about the oil and gas; and
• Plugging and abandonment (seal the wells when they are done).

Prior to commencing with activities, TEEPSA must obtain permission, an Environmental Authorisation; EA, in terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, 2014, (GN R 982 of 2014), promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (No. 107 of 1998), from the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR). As part of this process, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) must be completed. SLR Consulting (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd (SLR), an independent firm of Environmental Assessment Practitioners, has been appointed by TEEPSA to manage the environmental authorisation processes.

Status

Draft Scoping Report availability and Invitation to Public Open Days for public review

SLR has compiled a Draft Scoping Report, which is available for a 30-day review and comment period from 20 January to 19 February 2025. This provides an opportunity for I&APs to comment on any aspect of the proposed project and the potential impacts identified for further investigation in the Impact Assessment Phase. A full copy of the report as well as a Non-Technical Summary is available for download below.

To register as an I&AP and comment on the Draft Scoping Report, please contact SLR using the details provided above. For comments to be addressed and included in the Final Scoping Report, comments should reach SLR by no later than 19 February 2025.

Public Open Days are being held in 11 locations on the West Coast from 3 to 14 February 2025 to provide an overview of the project proposal and plan for the EIA process, as well as provide stakeholders a further opportunity to comment. An online public meeting will be held on 18 February 2025. Please refer to the Notification Letter, Non-technical Summary or Draft Scoping Report below for Public Open Day and meeting details.

By providing your personal information to submit a comment, you will be included in the SLR an Interested and Affected Party (I&AP) database, and you consent to SLR managing your information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. It is assumed that as an I&AP for this Project you authorise SLR to retain and use your Personal Information as part of a contact database for this and/or other Social and Environmental Impact Assessments (ESIA) and that you confirm your acceptance for SLR to contact you regarding this and/or other ESIA processes. SLR will not process your Personal Information, other than as permitted or required by ESIA processes, or as required by law or public policy. SLR will use reasonable, appropriate security safeguards to protect Personal Information, and to reasonably prevent any damage to, loss of, or unauthorised access or disclosure of Personal Information, other than as required for ESIA processes or as required by any Law or public policy. You may request for your Personal Information to be deleted from the I&AP database at any time by contacting SLR.