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Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project |
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The Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project is the largest foreign investment project in sub-Saharan Africa. It involves the drilling of 300 oil wells in the Doba region in the South of Chad and the construction of a 1070km long pipeline to transport the oil from Chad through Cameroon to the port of Kribi at the Atlantic coast. There the off-shore loading facility is connected through an 11 km underwater pipeline. Forging its passage through Cameroon’s
The project started operating in October 2003 and was inaugurated on 12 June 2004. Oilproduction is to reach 225,000 barrels per day. The construction phase of the project is completed, but its socio-economic impact on the population. The contracts signed between the stakeholders on the distribution of the oil profits leave much to be desired and gave in 2006 rise to frictions between the Chad government, the Worldbank and oilcompanies. RELUFA follows up on unresolved compensation issues in the communities living in the vicinity of the pipeline and advocates transparency in revenue spending. In technical aspects, the Chad Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project has made great strides. The construction component advanced more rapidly than expected, but the ecological and social components lagged behind. This has ‘two speed development’ caused for the project's the social and environmental provisions to be far from successful. At the closure of the works, many of the population's complaints remain unresolved. In 2004 and 2005 members of RELUFA's task Force on Economic Justice in the Extractive Industries traveled along the pipeline to verify these complaints and collected new claims. Through the facilitation of the Worldbank's International Advisory Group, the oil companies and the Cameroonian government have since 2005 agreed to sit around the table and discuss over 400 old and new cases with civil society groups. RELUFA is active interlocutor in these negotiations to defend the cause of the population. The network also works with eclesiastice leadership to sensitize the religious communities at large about the negative impact of the global economy in general and the extractive industries in particular in the Central Africa region. In 2004, the network collaborated with Cameroonian member churches of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) to develop a statement on the current trends of oil industries in Central Africa. This statement was presented in a plenary session of WARC's 2004 General Council in Accra (Ghana). RELUFA is founding member of the Cameroonian branch of the international Publish What You Pay (PWYP) coalition. PWYP seeks to establish an international framework requiring transnational extraction companies to publish net taxes, fees, royalties, and other payments made. The disclosure of these data will allow civil society to more accurately assess government spenditure of revenue resources and misappropriation of funds. CED's publications on the Pipeline: A Call for Accountability (2002) Traversing People's Lives (2002) The statement of Cameroonian WARC member churches: Statement Cameroonian WARC member churches (English) Declaration des Eglises membres de l'ARM (francais) The Association of Episcopal Conferences of the Central African Region (ACERAC) on oil and poverty: Statement of Catholic Bishops (2002) Publish What You Pay Campaign (PWYP): Other publications on oil in Central Africa: Pumping Poverty PLATFORM Research, 2005; http://www.carbonweb.org Follow the Money Revenue Watch Program of the Open Society Institute, 2005; http://www.soros.org Miracle or Mirage? Catholic Relief Services, 2005; http://www.catholicrelief.org Bottom of the Barrel Catholic Relief Services, 2003; http://www.catholicrelief.org A Time for Transparency Global Witness, 2004; http://www.globalwitness.org Fuelling Poverty Christian Aid; http://www.christianaid.org.uk Shellocked Project Underground; http://www.moles.org |
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