Shell Appeal: For what?

This Friday, the 17th May, all the precedent that important Wild Coast/ Shell verdict set for our coastal communities (human and others) will be challenged by Shell, Impact Africa, Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral Resources (DMRE) and Minister of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment, Barbara Creecy. They say the accusations of bias against the DMRE Minister, which stopped the applicants^[1] approaching him for internal remedy, are unfounded; that the applicants delayed bringing the review; plus, Shell and the ministers contest the application of the precautionary principle to marine seismic survey harms. They must believe the pursuit of offshore oil and gas in one of the most pristine coastlines left in the world is for the public good.

Business Live surfaced Impact chair Johnny Copelyn’s letter to shareholders (Hosken Consolidated Investments Annual Report 2023) complaining of litigation obliging,” the country to continue to import its requirements at close to double the cost per barrel to the country … total taxes on such oil production are about half the cost of the product.”  Copelyn marginalises the 100% “uplift” capital expenditure provisions for oil companies which make discoveries in South African waters, meaning South African tax-payers foot the entire bill for seismic surveys and well drilling, running into millions of a rands a day. Copelyn forgets that the production timeframe will only emerge around 2040, if they find oil/gas. 

Legitimising the ocean appropriation assumes an empty sea, one without the vitalising value of keeping us all alive. Short-sightedness in the economic logic of indigenising fossil-fuel resources to make them cheaper marginalises the poly-crisis of an ever hotter, more acidic sea; its consequential global circulatory system collapsing, extreme weather events, sea-level rise and mass species migrations and extinctions.

The canabalising externalities of oil development meant that climate- floods of April 2022 damaged the Durban SAPREF crude-processing refinery, a 50/50 joint venture between oil majors Shell and BP, and Shell lost its refining capacity. This has obviously pushed Shell to announce last week its quitting its South African downstream concerns, which include 600 petrol stations. No mention is made of Shell worker job losses, Shell’s ecological reparations nor how they intend detoxifying the South Durban community and beaches.

Shell’s financial support of ANC-affiliated Thebe Investment, valued at R3.7 billion for its 28% stake, fuels our ruling party’s addiction to gas and oil. This addiction leads to the approval of more offshore methane gas drilling and military interventions in resource-rich regions such as Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have been dispossessed due to this resource curse.

In the summer of 2021 Oceans Not Oil garnered nearly 500 000 petition signatures, marched, picketed and protested on beaches nation-wide to object to Shell^[2] and Impact Africa’s^[3] lack of community consultation, failure to consider coastal cultural heritage and global warming, when it arrived unannounced with a seismic survey authorisation from 2013 to look for oil and gas off the Wild Coast. Hope was lit, then blazed, when the September 2022 High Court judgment set aside Shell’s exploration right.

We are calling again for assembly outside the court house In Bloemfontein on the 17^th May and, “Not on our watch” vigils on your beaches, in your parks and your gardens and sport fields on Friday night (17th). Bring banners, future vision dialogues and light candles – leave no waste. 

See Events page for vigil or protest near you, and printable posters below.

#OceansNotOil

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^[1] Coastal communities and fishers (including the Amadiba and Dwesa-Cwebe communities and small-scale fishers from Hobeni, Port St Johns and the Kei Mouth), Sustaining the Wild Coast, All Rise, Natural Justice and Greenpeace Africa, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, Richard Spoor Attorneys and Cullinan & Associates. 

^[2] Shell Exploration and Production South Africa BV

^[3] Impact Africa Limited