CHAD: Future of Pipeline in Doubt
11/11/99
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Title: CHAD: Future of pipeline in doubt
Source: Financial Times
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 11, 1999
Byline: Nancy Dunne in Washington
The future of the controversial Chad-Cameroon oil development
project and pipeline was in doubt yesterday after Exxon announced it
was "considering changes" in the consortium which has planned to
undertake the venture.
Royal/Dutch Shell which, like Exxon, holds a 40 per cent share, said
it was reviewing its participation, and Elf, which has a 20 per cent
share, said it had not yet made a decision on whether to pull out of
the $3.5bn project.
The companies issued statements hours after the government of Chad
said they had "unexpectedly made known their decision to stop
funding the Doba oil project in southern Chad".
There has been speculation in Chad for weeks that the project was in
trouble. The planned 650-mile pipeline that would carry oil from
fields in southern Chad to Kribi in Cameroon has drawn widespread
opposition from environmentalists and human rights campaigners.
The Rainforest Action Network yesterday staged a protest at Shell's
Washington headquarters and the World Bank on the fourth anniversary
of the execution of Ken Saro-wiwa, Nigerian poet, playwright and
environmentalist, and seven others.
The protesters blame Shell for environmental destruction and human
rights abuses in Nigeria's oil producing Ogoniland.
"We are insisting that the World Bank does not participate in
creating another environmental and social nightmare like that visited
upon Nigeria," said Erick Brownstein, African campaign director for
the Rainforest group.
The World Bank says its participation in the project is the key to
holding the parties together and providing environmental safeguards.