Chad Says no Plan to Reroute Oil Pipeline to Libya
10/15/98
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Title: Chad Says no Plan to Reroute Oil Pipeline to Libya
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 10/15/98
Byline: Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE - Chad's Petroleum and Mines Minister Abdoulaye Lamana has
dismissed talk of plans to reroute a $3.5 billion oil pipeline to take
Chadian oil for export through Libya instead of via Cameroon.
"I can assure you there will be no rerouting through Libya," Lamana told
reporters on Monday night after talks with President Paul Biya in the
Cameroon capital Yaounde.
He described press reports in Cameroon of a possible change in plans for
the pipeline because of pressure from enviromentalist groups as "gossip."
"As you know very well the project is progressing well. Even if there are
some problems posed by certain ecological organisations we are trying to
solve these," the minister added.
Cameroonian newspapers have published reports suggesting that because of
funding problems with the World Bank due to the strong enviromentalist
lobby, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had offered to sponsor the entire
project if Chad agreed for the pipeline run through his country.
Lamana acknowledged there had been some problems but said these had been
ironed out with the World Bank in talks last month. Both sides were in
permanent consultation to deal with any outstanding issues.
Ecologists earlier this month called on the World Bank to shelve loan
plans for the pipeline, saying the proposal favours oil companies over the
poor and threatens the environment.
The Environmental Defence Fund and Friends of the Earth said the project,
which is meant to transport oil from Chad to Cameroon's Atlantic coast for
export, was an example of the World Bank's misguided approach to energy
funding.
"The World Bank has the ability to take the lead in investing in renewable
energy, wind and solar," said Andrea Durbin, Friends of the Earth
international programme director.
The World Bank is deciding whether to grant $365 million in loans to
secure the construction of the pipeline by a group of oil giants led by
U.S.-based Exxon Corp., and partners Royal Dutch/Shell Group and France's
Elf-Aquitaine.
The pipeline would pump and pipe Chadian oil to the sea through a 650-mile
(1,050-km) pipeline from southern Chad to Cameroon's port of Kribi.
The Chadian minister said the pipeline was of capital importance to the
economies of both countries and there was no question of it not running
through Cameroon.
(C) Reuters Limited 1998.