chad - cameroon pipeline

livelihoods piped away

chad-cameroon oil and pipeline project

“They promised us jobs.
They took everything from us.
They took our land.
They took our forest.
They took our water.”
 

Sama Bailie of Cameroon talking about the pipeline.

corporates: exxonmobil [usa], chevron [usa], petronas [malaysia]

Presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon and Idriss Deby of Chad inaugurated the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline on june 12 in Kribi. Read the press release . This ceremony marks the official kick-off of the exploitation phase of Chad oil by Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Petronas multinationals.
On October 10, 2003, a coalition of Chadian civil society groups called for a national day of mourning on the inauguration of the Chad-Cameroon oil and pipeline project. The groups warned that Chadian oil revenues “will only be another weapon in the hands of a plundering oligarchy used to oppress the Chadian people.” The groups denounced the insecurity and impunity which prevail in the country, and which will only increase with the exploitation of oil. Read about the FoE Cameroun point of view.

paying the pipeline
The US$3.7 billion Chad-Cameroon pipeline project is the biggest private investment in sub-Saharan Africa today, as well as one of the most controversial. It involves the drilling of 300 oil wells in the Doba region in the south of Chad and the construction of a 1070- kilometer pipeline to transport the oil from Chad through Cameroon to an offshore loading facility on the Atlantic Coast. Along the way, the pipeline will pass through rainforest, pygmy territories and major food and cotton producing areas. Resulting oil spills could have an enormous impact on the livelihoods of local people, and it has been estimated that thousands of fishermen will be put out of work.

In late 1999, the project appeared to be doomed when two of the companies involved, Shell and TotalFinalElf, dropped out of the consortium, reportedly partly due to local and environmental opposition by groups including Friends of the Earth members. However, project leader ExxonMobil (40%) carried on with the project, and is now supported by US-based Chevron (25%) and Malaysia's Petronas (35%).

The World Bank Group and European Investment Bank provided $200 million and $120 million respectively for the project. The World Bank, while financing only 4% of the total cost, is the most important project partner. The Bank's participation serves as a form of political risk insurance for the consortium, and enabled the companies to raise more money on international capital markets. The banks have presented the project as an opportunity for Chad to come out of its acute poverty while generating much needed revenue for Cameroon.

punishing communities and nature
NGOs in the two countries and abroad called fruitlessly upon the World Bank to postpone the decision until an adequate Environmental Impact Assessment had been conducted. After the pipeline was approved, they insisted that the Bank take social and environmental impacts into concern in implementing the project.

However, by mid-2002 it was already clear that the project is piping great amounts of misery and devastation into the area. Thousands of people have had their lands expropriated, crops and other plants destroyed, and water sources polluted without adequate compensation. Some victims have received no compensation whatsoever, including the Bakola and Bagyeli pygmies in the forests of Cameroon.

Although about 5,000 jobs had been promised at the outset, most work is given to expatriates, and locals end up with occasional short-term unqualified labour. The influx of largely male job seekers into the project area has led to serious social disruption of the communities, with prostitution, alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases all on the rise.

The pipeline cuts across sensitive and valuable ecosystems, particularly in Cameroon's coastal rainforest. Project-related upgrading of existing seasonal roads has led to logging and illegal poaching in otherwise inaccessible areas. The pipeline traverses several major rivers, and construction has already caused oil spills and polluted the water system.

rhetoric vs. reality
The World Bank continues to claim that the project is being implemented with community support and NGO input. In fact, Cameroon was rated the most corrupt country in the world in 1999 and 2000 by Transparency International, a fact that significantly hampers participation in decision-making. The Chadian human rights situation is also highly problematic; the government of Chad has still not investigated the massacres of hundreds of unarmed civilians that took place in 1997 and 1998 in the country's oil producing region. Furthermore, it was revealed that the President of Chad used US$4.5 million of the signing bonus paid by the oil consortium to buy weapons, rather than investing in public health, education and vital infrastructure as had been agreed. Since the official inauguration of the pipeline in October 2003, the situation in Chad has deteriorated further: a peaceful demonstration planned by human rights groups was prohibited by the authorities, and the government, in violation of the constitution, closed the country’s only independent radio station. In November 2003, the government, for the first time since 1991, executed eight people who had been condemned to death. Now that the oil money is starting to flow, Chadian citizens fear that repression and insecurity will further increase as the regime's 'true face' is revealed.

In both 2001 and 2002, local groups in Chad and Cameroon filed claims with the World Bank's Inspection Panel, charging that the Bank had violated its own policies in the implementation of the project. The Panel confirmed numerous trespasses of its environmental assessment policy, and in the case of Chad, violations of its operational directives on poverty alleviation and economic evaluation. “The World Bank touts the Chad- Cameroon oil pipeline as a model project that will reduce poverty while compensating for environmental impacts. Practice has however demonstrated the failure of World Bank rhetoric to match reality,” said Samuel Nguiffo of Friends of the Earth Cameroon.

more information:

on this site , www.foei.org/ifi and read the press release : international organisations support chadian day of mourning, while banks and exxon celebrate the chad-cameroon pipeline

Traversing People's Lives: How the World Bank Finances Community Disruption in Cameroon, FoEI, 2002: read the pdf
Broken Promises: The Chad Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project; Profit at any Cost? FoEI, FoE Cameroon, FoE Netherlands, 2001:, read the pdf
FoE Cameroon (French): www.cedcam.org/petrole.htm
Read Friends of the Earth Cameroon's comments on the oil spill response plan for the chad-cameroon pipeline (pdf, 102 kb)

“I am concerned about the environment. Looking around me I see rivers drying out, birds disappearing, the wood is drying out, too. It feels as if soon it will be a desert here. They're clearing a large strip of forest that acted as a windshield for us against the strong winds from the sea. […] But we're told this project is of international importance. […] We have no way of opposing it, © jens kuester/greenpeace