{"id":6099,"date":"2024-01-04T13:36:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T13:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/?p=6099"},"modified":"2024-01-04T13:38:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T13:38:03","slug":"totalenergies-to-review-land-buyouts-in-contested-africa-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/2024\/01\/04\/totalenergies-to-review-land-buyouts-in-contested-africa-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"TotalEnergies to Review Land Buyouts in Contested Africa Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Leilah Bbaale<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>French energy giant TotalEnergies on Thursday said it had launched a review of its land acquisition practices for controversial $10-billion projects in Uganda and Tanzania slammed by environmentalists.<\/p>\n<p>TotalEnergies is pushing ahead with its Tilenga drilling project in Uganda and the 1,443-kilometre (897-mile) East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to transport it to the coast in Tanzania in the face of opposition from activists and environmentalists.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the\u00a0statement said, adding that it would submit its report by April.<\/p>\n<p>Tilenga targets oil under the rich Murchison Falls nature reserve in western Uganda with a planned 419 wells, triggering fears for the region&#8217;s fragile ecosystem among the people who live there and environmentalists.<\/p>\n<p>Drilling began in mid-2023 and production is slated to begin in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>TotalEnergies, which is working with Chinese oil company CNOOC on the project, says that its 6,400-hectare acquisition plan affects &#8220;19,140 households and communities owning or using plots of land and includes the relocation of 775 primary residences&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To date, 98 percent of the households concerned have signed compensation agreements, 97 percent have received their compensation, and 98 percent of households to be relocated have taken possession of their new homes,&#8221; the company added.<\/p>\n<p>Resistance to the project has rallied opponents of fossil fuel development as well as conservationists and those fearing the effect on local populations.<\/p>\n<p>Human Rights Watch called in July for the plans to be halted, saying in a report that it had already &#8220;devastated thousands of people\u2019s livelihoods in Uganda&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The oilfield would &#8220;ultimately displace over 100,000 people,&#8221; it charged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Leilah Bbaale French energy giant TotalEnergies on Thursday said it had launched a review of its land acquisition practices for controversial $10-billion projects in Uganda and Tanzania slammed by environmentalists. TotalEnergies is pushing ahead with its Tilenga drilling project in Uganda and the 1,443-kilometre (897-mile) East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to transport it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"category-oil-and-gas"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6100,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6099\/revisions\/6100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spicemedia.ug\/spicefm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}