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 tropical rainforests, the project crosses 242
villages. Along the tract, pump- and pressure reduction stations were
built, living quarters for the project crew, and storage sites for
equipment.
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. reports of the biannual statutory visits by the World bank's International Advisory Group (IAG) to Chad and Cameroon can be found on the IAG's website.
The network also worked 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.
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RELUFA's EI Newsletters
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Offshore loading platform near Kribi
Lost livelihoods: fishermen of Ebome
Inadequate compensations:
M. Bissabidang at Makoure
Involuntary displacements: Bagyeli ("pygmy") resettlement near Kribi
Destroyed and polluted water sources: waterborne diseases
Destruction of sacred places: unearthed Bagyeli grave near Bidjouka |
