Protesters goal BNP in Paris over mortgage to grease firm

PARIS, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Protesters from ecological motion Extinction Riot rallied outdoors a BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) constructing in Paris on Friday to oppose the French financial institution’s mortgage to an oil main main in an East African oil pipeline undertaking.

Some 40 contributors sprayed the facade of a BNP workplace within the central Opera quarter with fireplace extinguishers and blocked a close-by avenue with a mock pipeline labelled “STOP EACOP”. Fourteen protesters have been held by police, the group mentioned.

EACOP is the acronym for the $3.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline, a undertaking run by France’s TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) whose building licence was authorised by Ugandan authorities on Thursday.

Extinction Riot mentioned its protest, which was joined by different marketing campaign teams together with Fridays for Future, was timed to coincide with the beginning of drilling by TotalEnergies of exploratory oil wells in Uganda’s Murchison Falls Nationwide Park.

Extinction Riot mentioned the nationwide park was the “largest biodiversity reserve” in Uganda.

EACOP will stretch 1,443 kilometres (897 miles) from Uganda to Tanzania, with plans to ship out as much as 246,000 barrels of crude oil per day to worldwide markets through the port of Tanga as early as 2025.

A TotalEnergies spokesperson mentioned that whereas one-third of the undertaking was positioned in Murchison Falls, oil improvement actions would cowl only one sq. kilometre, roughly 0.03% of the nationwide park space.

“TotalEnergies is totally conscious of how delicate is the world wherein it operates and it’s dedicated to take the measures wanted to keep away from, cut back, compensate its impacts on it,” the spokesperson mentioned.

BNP Paribas determined to not finance the EACOP undertaking in 2021, however final 12 months participated in a one-year liquidity mortgage of $8 billion to TotalEnergies as one in every of a dozen banks.

One protester, referring to the mortgage, mentioned “this clean test permits TotalEnergies to finance completely something it desires, so sure BNP Paribas might in a roundabout way underwrite the undertaking however it nonetheless stays the second-largest monetary companion.”

In a press release on Friday, the financial institution mentioned it “helps vitality corporations which can be strongly dedicated to the transition of their fashions … to reorient financing towards low-carbon vitality sources.” The financial institution has a aim to finance 30 billion euros ($32.5 billion) of renewable vitality tasks by 2025.

($1 = 0.9234 euros)

Reporting by Sarah Meyssonnier and America Hernandez
Modifying by Silvia Aloisi and Mark Potter

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