By: Staff
French oil and gas major TotalEnergies is facing pressure to halt the construction of a pipeline from oil fields in Uganda to a port in Tanzania, after a report found that it had damaged hundreds of graves along the project route.
Released on Thursday by the New York-based climate watchdog GreenFaith, the report claimed that TotalEnergies “has consistently failed to respect local customs and traditions related to the treatment of graves.”
“The company has routinely disregarded the pleas of local families to respect graves, ignored information which families or community members shared about the location of unmarked graves, and provided inadequate, delayed, or no compensation for the harm caused,” it stated.
TotalEnergies has been planning to construct the world's largest heated crude oil pipeline, the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), in partnership with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation and governments of Ugandan and Tanzanian, since 2017.
If completed, the 1,443-kilometer pipeline project, which is expected to displace more than 100,000 people, will result in dozens of wellsites, hundreds of kilometers of roads, camps, and other infrastructure.
However, TotalEnergies, the project's largest shareholder with a 62% stake, has long faced legal action from activists for alleged human rights and climate violations.
In June, five French and Ugandan NGOs sued the oil giant for a second time in a Paris civil court after an earlier fast-track attempt was dismissed. The groups accused TotalEnergies of causing “serious harm” to locals, particularly with regard to their rights to land and food, as well as undermining the Paris climate accord through its EACOP and Tilenga oil development project operations.
The “As if nothing is sacred” report by GreenFaith found that the construction is a “spiritual assault” on local communities, aside from environmental and human rights concerns. The findings are based on field surveys in three districtPost too long. Click here to view the full text.