Shell, Elf Reconsider Africa Pipeline
12/22/99
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Title: Shell, Elf Reconsider Africa Pipeline
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 22, 1999
Shell has announced that it may pull out of a controversial oil
pipeline project in the Central African countries of Chad and
Cameroon. The project would consist of the development of oil fields
in Chad and the construction of a six hundred mile pipeline from Chad
to Cameroon's Atlantic coast.
"We are considering our position within the consortium.One option
being considered is withdrawal from the project," said Michelle
Barrett, a spokesperson for Shell. French oil giant Elf Aquitaine has
also indicated that it may withdraw from the venture, although the
company has not released an official statement.
The first indication that the[Banner hung at World Bank headquarters]
project was in trouble came on November 10, when Chadian
Communication Minister and government spokesman Moussa Dago told
Chadian state radio that "The Dutch company Shell and the French
company Elf have unexpectedly made known their decision to stop
funding the Doba oil project in southern Chad."
Shell and Elf are part of an international consortium, along with
Exxon, that is at the head of the proposed oil project. Following the
news that Shell and Elf may withdraw from the project, Exxon
reaffirmed its commitment to the project and said that it would be
looking for new partners in the venture.
Dago went on to say that "the sudden nature of these decisions
suggest that they are not dictated by economic or technical
considerations." Some analysts have speculated that Shell and Elf may
have decided to pull out due to the environmental and political
controversy surrounding the project.
Environmental and human rights activists have succeeded in drawing
international attention to the social and environmental risks
associated with the Chad/Cameroon rainforest pipeline project. The
project would bring the environmental devastation that accompanies
oil exploration and development to intact rainforest regions
inhabited by indigenous peoples and endangered animal species.
Environmental risks associated with the project include
deforestation, groundwater contamination, and pollution of important
regional river systems. The proposed oil fields are in the heart of
Chad's food-producing region, where even an incidental oil spill
would be devastating.
In addition, profits from the pipeline would put millions of dollars
into the pockets of two governments known for their problems with
rampant corruption. For the second year in a row, Transparency
International, a business coalition that monitors governments, rated
Cameroon the world's most corrupt government. Southern Chad is so
dangerous and politically unstable that neither Amnesty International
nor the US State Department were able to visit to confirm a massacre
of hundreds of people.
As we reported in July (AA 145), the World Bank is considering
whether or not to help finance the Chad/Cameroon rainforest pipeline
project. The World Bank's Board of Directors was scheduled to make a
final decision on the project as early as November 15, but so far no
decision has been made. The three oil companies have said that they
are dependent on the World Bank's participation in the project to
reduce the financial risk of investing in the politically-charged
region and to attract other investors.
Ironically, the World Bank's president, Mr. James Wolfensohn, has
consistently maintained that corruption is the biggest roadblock to
development. In a 1997 USIA interview, he told the correspondent
"people who corrupt don't get rewarded for it, and people who are
corrupted don't get rewarded for it." The World Bank, whose stated
mission is to alleviate poverty and to promote sustainable
development, bases its support of the pipeline on the assertion that
it will alleviate poverty, because revenue from the project will be
spent on poverty alleviation programs.
In the past, however, little revenue from similar projects has made
its way to the people of Africa. In Cameroon, profits from other oil
projects are largely unaccounted for, and local communities have
little faith that they will see any money or benefits from the
Chad/Cameroon project. "What we need are small-scale programs that
respond to local aspirations," says Samuel Nguiffo, director of the
Center for the Environment and Development in Cameroon. Because the
amount of aid that one country can receive from the World Bank is
limited, programs that address local needs and have a legitimate
chance to alleviate poverty would be crowded out by the pipeline.
"Giving money to notoriously corrupt governments has never been an
effective way of providing humanitarian aid," said RAN's African
Rainforest Campaign Director Erick Brownstein. "The people of Chad
and Cameroon deserve a chance to live a decent life, but undermining
their hope for a better future by destroying their forests, putting
their food and water supplies at risk of contamination, and beefing
up unaccountable and un-democratic governments is no way to achieve
that goal."
Cameroon, for example, continues to exploit its forests despite
having signed a multitude of forestry-related agreements with the
World Bank, and Chad continues to have problems with human rights
abuses. A 1999 US State Department report on human rights in Chad
stated that "Police and security forces repeatedly used deadly force
against unarmed persons in and around Moundou. security forces
tortured, beat, abused and raped citizens." Mondou is located less
than fifty miles from the proposed oil fields for the Chad/Cameroon
project.
Groups in Chad and Cameroon continue to speak out against the
project, despite receiving threats on a daily basis. Many simply do
not believe that their governments have the necessary structures or
capacity to protect the environment or to direct revenues from the
project to those who need them the most.
The news that Shell and Elf may withdraw from the pipeline project
came just one day before the anniversary of the execution of poet and
activist Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other Nigerian activists, known as
the Ogoni 9, by the Nigerian government. The Ogoni 9 were executed in
1995 for their role in oil protests that exposed Shell's role in
environmental and human rights abuses in Nigeria.
A demonstration was held in Washington, DC in November to remember
Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 9, and to urge the World Bank not to fund
the Chad/Cameroon pipeline project, which many fear will become a
nightmare similar to that which took place in Nigeria. The rally was
the latest in a series of events organized by RAN to draw attention
to the risks associated with the pipeline, and to convince World Bank
President James Wolfensohn to put an end to the World Bank's
involvement in the project.
In September, an activist from RAN climbed seven stories up the
faŘade of the World Bank building in Washington, DC and unfurled a
banner featuring a gigantic photograph of Wolfensohn and the message:
"Tax Dollars and Corruption Buy Murder and Destruction. Stop the
African Oil Pipeline." The action was timed to coincide with the
World Bank's annual meeting, which took place the following day in
Washington, DC.
In July, a rainforest activist set free a cluster of helium balloons
into the thirteen-story-high atrium of the World Bank building.
Attached to the balloons was a forty foot banner that read:
"Wolfensohn: Stop the Pipeline." Bank security, unsure how to get the
banner down, decided to wait until the balloons ran out of helium.
The balloons did run out of helium, but became stuck in the
building's rafters on the way down, ensuring that the banner's
message was prominently displayed for several more days.
The World Bank has also been the target of a national ad campaign. In
a full-page New York Times ad that ran in August, RAN challenged Mr.
Wolfensohn to stand by his convictions and not approve funding for
the controversial project. The ad's headline announced: "Here's your
chance to invest in corrupt governments and get high-yield rainforest
destruction at no extra cost."
Ads also ran in August in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Wolfensohn was
vacationing at the time. In Old West style, the "Wanted" ads asked
people to "encourage [Wolfensohn] to take a stand for Africa's
largest rainforest and stop the Chad/Cameroon Rainforest Oil Pipeline
Project." The ads also personally challenged Wolfensohn to
"demonstrate authentic leadership and stop this archaic project."