Chad-Cam Oil and Pipeline Project Springs a Leak

[Graham Saul]

Hi all,

 

For those of you that haven't already seen this, the World Bank-financed Chad Cameroon oil and pipeline project has sprung a leak and groups in the region are up in arms about the failure of the project consortium to quickly detect and respond to the spill. Find below a couple of articles on the spill.

 

You can find out more from the Center for Environment and Development in Cameroon at http://www.africa-environment.org/actu/actualites.php?id=19

 

Graham Saul

Oil Change International

 

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CAMEROON: Oil leak shows weaknesses in World Bank pipeline, NGOs warn
25 Jan 2007 17:38:11 GMT
Source: IRIN
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
 
 
 
 YAOUNDE, 25 January (IRIN) - Fishermen in the southern coastal town of Kribi are warily casting their nets after a leak in the massive Chad-Cameroon pipeline last week. 
"Our town lives on fishing and tourism. If more incidents like this or worse occur it is the economic future of the town that is threatened," Kribi Mayor Gregoire Mba Mba told IRIN. 
The Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (COTCO), which built the Cameroon leg of the pipeline, announced on 19 January that the structure's water evacuation system had failed. The company said the leak was quickly brought under control and "no impact on the coast or on the sensitive marine environment is anticipated". 
It was not immediately clear how much oil leaked into the sea, for how long and what the environmental impact or the affect on livelihoods might be. 
But two Cameroonian NGOs, the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) and the Network for the Fight Against Hunger, alleged on Tuesday that there was a delay in detecting the leak and that COTCO waited five days to inform the public at large about the problem. 
The NGOs said the accident at the Kome-Kribi terminal 11km offshore exposed weaknesses in Cameroon's ability to manage such a crisis and that authorities had yet to devise an emergency plan of action in the event of a major spill. 
"If there had been an accident affecting the coasts the impact would have been catastrophic because of confusion among authorities and communities who do not seem to know which avenue to pursue in case of a petroleum accident," said Samuel Nguiffo, of CED, in a statement. 
The US $3.7 billion Chad-Cameroon pipeline brings oil from landlocked Chad through a 1,100km-pipeline - with 890km of it passing through Cameroon - to the Atlantic. The pipeline reaches the coast at Ebome, near Kribi, and continues out to sea to the Kome-Kribi tanker loading terminal. 
The pipeline project was overseen by the World Bank, which demanded strict environmental and social standards, in part to prevent oil money from disappearing from government coffers. It signed a new memorandum of understanding with Chad last July after the Chadian government demanded its original promise to put 90 percent of its share of oil revenues into development be reduced to 70 percent. 
In Cameroon, a programme of compensation for loss of land, hunting and farming grounds and general inconvenience caused by the construction of the pipeline was drawn up. A community liaison team held more than a 1,000 meetings with villages and individuals and spent over US $8 million on reparations. 
The Montreal-based International Advisory Group is one of several independent monitors for the project. The members of the international consortium running the pipeline are: ExxonMobil, Petronas of Malaysia and ChevronTexaco. 
The World Bank says the project could result in nearly US $2 billion in revenues for Chad and US $500 million for Cameroon over the 25-year production period. 
fp/cs/nr 

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Unauthorized translation of AFP Article "Pollution pétrolière au large du pipeline Tchad-Cameroun":

 

Oil pollution from Chad Cameroon Pipeline

CAMEROON - January 23, 2007 - AFP

An accidental oil spill occurred last week off the Cameroonian seaside resort of Kribi, on the south west coast of the country, at the marine terminal of the Chad Cameroon Pipeline, according to sources.

 

According to the mayor of Kribi, Grégoire Mba Mba, the incident occurred on January 15 about 12 km off the coast. "We learned about this incident from the press", deplored the representative in a telephone interview.

 

The management of the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company (Cotco) in an interview to the governmental daily Cameroon Tribune last Friday, acknowledged that an accidental spill had occurred that had been qualified as "minimal". The cause of the spill was not specified.

 

« We don't expect any impact on the coast or on the sensitive marine environment », contended the representatives of Cotco, a company owned by the American-Malaysian consortium who exploits oil in Chad and by the Cameroonian government.

 

Despite this statement, the mayor of Kribi declared he was worried about potential consequences of the incident.

 

« They made us believe that Cotco's installations were outstanding, and that there was no risk involved. This has been proven wrong. We are worried about our future, all the more so since we have no means to verify Cotco's statements about the scale of the incident", explained Mba Mba.

 

 "75 percent of Kribi's inhabitants make a living from fishing (.) If other, more serious incidents occur, the economic future of the town is threatened", he added.

      In a press release on Tuesday, the Center for Environment and Development (CED) and the Reseau contre la faim, two NGOs based in Yaoundé, deplored the delays in the detection of the spill.

      They also expressed concern about the absence of a national oil spill response plan, which had been announced at the launch of the pipeline. 

      The Chad Cameroon pipeline is 1070 km long, 890 of which on Cameroonian territory. It was inaugurated in 2004 (This is actually not correct, it was 2003) and since October 2003 allows for the transport of oil from the Doba basin in South Chad to the Atlantic coast.

      The pipeline, financed by the World Bank, has been criticized notably for environmental reasons.