Total Energies has decided to withdraw from huge gas discoveries in South Africa, threatening the country’s ambitious energy plans, despite huge investments and engineering challenges that have been overcome.

After discovering huge quantities of gas condensate in the “Brulpadda” and “LUIBIRD” fields and investing more than $400 million in the project, the French company decided to abandon these discoveries amid economic and commercial challenges.

This decision comes at a time when South Africa is striving to reduce its dependence on coal and diversify its energy sources, as it intends to use the gas extracted from these fields to feed the gas-to-liquids plant.

Despite the government’s assurances about finding new investors, this withdrawal is a strong blow to the country’s hopes of achieving energy self-sufficiency and diversifying its economy.

This decision coincides with a widespread controversy over oil and gas exploration in South Africa, where companies operating in this field face sharp criticism from environmental protection organizations.