World Bank Backs Chad/Cameroon Oil Pipeline
10/27/99
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Title: FOCUS-World Bank backs Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 27, 1999
YAOUNDE, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A senior World Bank official on Wednesday
restated the Bank's backing for a pipeline that will carry oil from
landlocked Chad to export facilities on the coast of Cameroon.
``The World Bank is not only interested in seeing the project
realised, but will also ensure its proper execution,'' Bank
vice-president Shengman Zhang told reporters in Yaounde after a
meeting with Cameroonian Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge.
He is also due to meet representatives of environmental and non-
governmental organisations that have expressed reservations over the
pipeline.
Poverty-stricken Chad has discovered significant reserves of oil that
oil companies backed by aid agencies want to exploit under a $3.5
billion investment plan.
However, ecologists argue that the 1,050 km (650-mile) pipeline
needed to get the oil to an export terminal in Kribi could damage
rain forest and rivers. Human rights groups are concerned for the
local population along the route.
World Bank funding is crucial to the project and private sector
operators are waiting for its approval before proceeding.
Zhang said construction of the pipeline has been delayed to give
enough time for consultation. ``We are here to listen to their
concerns and report back to the board,'' he said.
The World Bank delegation led by Zhang is due to leave for Chad on
Thursday.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn in September dismissed the
``hysteria'' that had built up about the pipeline and said he did not
believe there would be catastropic environmental effects.