French fuel company, TotalEnergies has in the wake of calls by the European Union Members of Parliament to pull out of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline allayed any fears of abandoning the project.
“Since the start of our operations, we have made the commitment to develop this project in a transparent, socially and environmentally friendly manner in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As longer as Uganda is happy, as longer as you are there for us and you want the project, we will be here,” said Philippe Groueix, the General Manager TotalEnergies.
“Our actions to date have been guided by the desire to achieve shared prosperity and as a result of this, we undertake continuous consultations and dialogue with communities.”
He was speaking during the launch of the French oil company’s action for sustainability campaign aimed at showcasing the various initiatives it has been undertaking to ensure the sustainable development of Uganda’s oil and gas resources, in collaboration with the regulators and various partners.
In the past few weeks, there have been concerns raised mostly by activists and Members of Parliament from the European Union.
These raised concerns over “human rights violations” in Uganda and Tanzania linked to investment in the pipeline.
“There are human rights violations including wrongful imprisonment of human rights defenders, the arbitrary suspension of NGOs, arbitrary prison sentences and the eviction of hundreds of people from their land without fair and adequate compensation,” the EU parliament said, arguing that more than 100,000 people risk being displaced.
They also noted that carbon emissions from the oil risk further causing problems to the econ-system.
The EU lawmakers consequently asked TotalEnergies to take a year before launching the project to study the feasibility of an alternative route.
However, speaking on Thursday, the TotalEnergies boss said it is wrong to assume that is only Uganda or Tanzania with crude oil pipelines, noting that it is a collective responsibility for everyone, including European countries to reduce carbon emissions but noted it should be gradual.
"We can regulate but we cannot get rid of fossil fuels tomorrow. This will take time. We need to decarbonize the energy worldwide but you can't jump from 0-80%.”
On fears of spills of oil from the pipeline, Groueix allayed any fears by the activists.
“The Tilenga project is an onshore project located in a sensitive context both environmentally and socially. Our actions to date have been guided by the desire to achieve shared prosperity and as a result of this we undertake continuous consultations and dialogue with communities, stakeholders, and government. We aim to not only implement but also demonstrate the achievement of net positive gain on the Tilenga project whilst adhering to the most stringent international requirements. The East African Crude Oil Pipeline has been designed to make sure that there is no spill, with the possibility of an occurrence being very low."
The TotalEnergies boss also spoke about claims of lack of compensation to land owners where the pipeline is going to pass, noting that the process is still ongoing.
Sustainability campaign
Groueix said the two long will be broadcast on all mainstream information channels around the country and will include the voices of the different implementation partners, project affected people and the communities.
“Through the campaign, the company will showcase the various initiatives and actions around the themes of environment and biodiversity conservation, social and human rights, all of which have been undertaken in close collaboration with relevant government authorities, communities as well as local and international CSOs and NGOs.”
