{"id":836922,"date":"2025-09-05T10:05:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=836922"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:07:21","slug":"major-fight-over-oil-in-south-africa-heading-back-to-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/836922\/major-fight-over-oil-in-south-africa-heading-back-to-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Major fight over oil in South Africa heading back to court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Shell and the government, via the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources (DPMR), are looking to overturn a High Court Ruling that barred the oil giant from drilling off South Africa\u2019s West Coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After major oil discoveries in neighbouring Namibia, international energy companies launched plans to drill for resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TotalEnergies previously won environmental authorisation for these operations in South Africa, but intended to transfer this to Shell, which would ultimately conduct the drilling.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, environmental groups, the Green Connection and Natural Justice, took the matter to the High Court to prevent this and won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s courts found that the process to award environmental authorisation was deeply flawed for five key reasons:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No proper study of what a disaster would mean for communities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It ignored coastal protection laws<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Climate change impacts were not properly assessed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No assessment of cross-border harm was conducted<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The public was kept in the dark on key emergency plans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, the government\u2019s decision to grant authorisation was reversed, with the matter returning to the Department of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court said the new review would require fresh assessments, additional information, and greater public participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the matter is set now to return to the court after Shell, the DPMR Minister and Director General filed applications for leave to appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The parties seek permission to challenge the High Court decision, via either the Supreme Court of Appeal or before a full bench of the High Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The environmental groups called the move disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile this is disappointing, we are hopeful that the High Court will uphold its ruling, which was a big win for human rights and climate justice,\u201d said Legal Advisor to The Green Connection, Shahil Singh.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMoreover, without the public having had a meaningful opportunity to interrogate the full, updated Oil Spill and Blowout Contingency Plans, we do not see how this can be granted.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He argued that not making these plans available to the public until after the environmental approval was granted violated people\u2019s right to comment on emergency preparedness and seemed to motivate the ruling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the state and Shell argue that the Court misapplied the law, the Green Connection and Natural Justice maintain that the ruling was legally sound and consistent with the Constitution and environmental laws.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has chosen not to appeal, filing a Notice to Abide.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The High Court will now need to decide whether to grant leave to appeal. If refused, the respondents may petition a higher court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until the appeal is finalised, the prior High Court judgement from 13 August 2025 remains binding.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Not the first time&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shell.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shell-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-779738\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shell-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shell-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shell-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Shell.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The fight for the West Coast forms another legal battle for Shell and its offshore activities near South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group recently lost a separate court battle over a proposed seismic survey off the Wild Coast in South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The oil giant was again criticised for a lack of public consultation despite the seismic surveys having the potential to harm the marine environment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Constitutional Court ruled last year that a prior High Court\u2019s decision to grant the exploration right to do seismic surveys was granted unlawfully.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the court battles, Shell remains committed to its upstream business. However, it plans to sell its downstream business, which includes 600 petrol stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reports indicate that Shell petrol stations could be sold to buyers from Abu Dhabi or Switzerland.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The leave to appeal application can be found below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DMRE-APPLICATION-FOR-LEAVE-TO-APPEAL.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of DMRE-APPLICATION-FOR-LEAVE-TO-APPEAL.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-9831d41e-3f71-441d-afdd-f8feb56e80e4\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DMRE-APPLICATION-FOR-LEAVE-TO-APPEAL.pdf\">DMRE-APPLICATION-FOR-LEAVE-TO-APPEAL<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/DMRE-APPLICATION-FOR-LEAVE-TO-APPEAL.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-9831d41e-3f71-441d-afdd-f8feb56e80e4\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shell and the government are appealing a High Court Ruling that put the oil giants plan to drill off South Africa&#8217;s West Coast on hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":770742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1499,23369,2239],"class_list":["post-836922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-department-of-energy","tag-green-justice","tag-shell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836922"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":836929,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836922\/revisions\/836929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}