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Four civil society organisations have filed legal action against French energy giant TotalEnergies, seeking access to documents relating to the company’s planned divestment from its onshore oil interests in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
The organisations, including Friends of the Earth France, Hawkmoth, HEDA Resource Centre and Social Action International, announced the lawsuit on Wednesday in a joint statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES.
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They said their suit asked a French court to compel TotalEnergies to disclose documents that would clarify the terms of the proposed sale of its stake in the Renaissance joint venture.
The organisations, supported by The Corner House and ReCommon, stated that the legal action was brought under Article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure, which allows parties to seek court-ordered measures to preserve or obtain evidence before a substantive lawsuit is filed.
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According to the groups, the transaction has been conducted with little public disclosure, leaving unanswered questions about who will be responsible for remediating polluted sites and compensating communities affected by decades of oil exploration in the Niger Delta.
They explained that the requested documents would enable them to determine whether TotalEnergies has complied with France’s Duty of Vigilance Law, which requires large companies to identify and prevent serious human rights and environmental risks linked to their operations and business relationships.
The legal action comes months after TotalEnergies announced that it had signed a sale and purchase agreement to divest its 10 per cent non-operating interest in the Renaissance joint venture to Nigerian consortium Vaaris.
The company noted that the proposed sale covers its interest in 18 onshore oil mining licences in the Niger Delta but excludes its stakes in three gas-producing licences that supply about half of the feed gas to the Nigeria LNG project.
It also said completion of the transaction remains subject to approval by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
The proposed transaction followed an earlier attempt by TotalEnergies to sell the same stake to Chappal Energies, a deal that was not completed before the company announced Vaaris as the new buyer.
The organisations cited findings by the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission, which described the Niger Delta as one of the world’s “most polluted places on Earth.”
They said decades of oil production have left drinking water contaminated, destroyed fisheries and rendered large areas of farmland unsuitable for cultivation.
According to the commission’s 2023 report, between nine million and 13 million barrels of crude oil were spilled across the Niger Delta between 1958 and 2010—an amount estimated to be 35 to 50 times the volume released during the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
“This case is about people, not just oil assets. It is about children growing up with poisoned water, families breathing polluted air, and communities losing their health and livelihoods while international oil companies walk away with decades of profits,” Isaac Osuoka, who is the Coordinator of Social Action International, stated.
“These communities must not be treated as corporate sacrifice zones. France’s Duty of Vigilance Law requires Total to demonstrate that its divestment does not further infringe the human rights of people in its oil and gas extraction sites by ensuring adequate remediation.”
Oil majors’ exit raises concerns
The organisations said TotalEnergies’ planned divestment is part of a broader withdrawal by European oil companies from Nigeria’s onshore oil sector.
They recalled that in March 2025, Shell completed the sale of its Nigerian onshore subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), to Renaissance Africa Energy. SPDC, now renamed Renaissance JV, had operated onshore oil assets that, according to the groups, contributed significantly to oil pollution in the Niger Delta over the past three decades.
The statement noted that TotalEnergies, which owns a 10 per cent non-operating stake in the joint venture, signed an agreement in January 2026 to sell that interest to Vaaris, while Eni announced in May 2026 that it would also divest its stake in the onshore assets.
The organisations argued that these transactions have proceeded without adequate public disclosure regarding financial guarantees for environmental remediation or compensation, raising concerns that communities may be left to bear the burden of decades of pollution after the international oil companies complete their exit.
At TotalEnergies’ annual general meeting in May, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pouyanné, defended the company’s decision to exit Nigeria’s onshore oil business, citing persistent crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
He stated the company had sought to ensure that environmental liabilities associated with the assets would be transferred to the new owners in accordance with Nigerian law.
However, the organisations argued that those assurances should be made public.
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“Total served on the international board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, so it can’t say it doesn’t understand the public interest and its own obligation to be transparent about such transactions,” Simon Taylor, a founding director of anti-corruption group, Global Witness, explained.
“We asked Patrick Pouyanné about the deal at this year’s AGM, but all we got back were smoke-and-mirrors claims. Just what has Total got to hide?”
Also commenting, Olanrewaju Suraju of HEDA Resources, said United Nations working groups had described recent divestments by multinational oil companies as “experiments in divestment without clean-up.”
He argued that questions remain over whether the new owners have the financial capacity to assume the environmental liabilities associated with the assets, citing the financing arrangements surrounding Shell’s sale and the unsuccessful attempt to conclude TotalEnergies’ earlier transaction with Chappal Energies.
The organisations noted that they are asking the French court to compel TotalEnergies to disclose documents relating to the proposed sale so they can assess whether the company has fulfilled its obligations under France’s Duty of Vigilance Law before completing the divestment.
“Access to information is essential to ensure that these companies fulfil their responsibilities and do not leave local communities to deal with the heavy legacy of the pollution they have caused,” Camille Grandperrin of Friends of the Earth France, stressed.
As of the time of filing this report, neither TotalEnergies, Vaaris nor the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission had issued any public statement in response to the lawsuit.
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