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OIL
/ KEYNOTE
From the Arctic Ocean to the Caspian Sea, hundreds of companies, large and small, continue their relentless quest for oil and gas, all of them hoping to strike it rich. It's a romantic, risky business and the costs are steep - and not just financially. The highest price is paid by local cultures and the natural environment. In quite a few spots the petroleum industry is meeting stiff opposition. |
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Alaska, US
Major Companies: BPAmoco (Britain/US) gets most of the attention but if and when the Bush
administration opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration all
the majors will be clamouring to be in on the action.
Project: There is already significant oil exploration in Alaska, notably at Prudhoe Bay
just 130 kilometres west of the ANWR on the Arctic shoreline where more than 2,600 square
kilometres of fragile tundra have been turned into a sprawling industrial zone. The ANWR
is a pristine 7.5 million hectare refuge sometimes called ‘America’s
Serengeti’ because of its spectacular natural diversity. The oil lobby and their
supporters in Washington are pushing to overturn a 20-year moratorium on drilling in the
area.
Impact: Environmentalists and local native people are outraged by plans to drill in the
ANWR. No wonder: the oil companies record in the Arctic is not impressive. The
Exxon-Valdez disaster in 1989 spilled 11 million gallons of Alaskan crude oil and in the
same year 1,314 oil spills were recorded on Alaska’s north shore. According to the US
Public Interest Research Group BPAmoco was responsible for 104 oil spills in the region
between January 1997 and March 1998. The reserve is home to one of the world’s
largest caribou herds as well as to grizzlies, polar bears, ringed seals, wolves, musk-ox
and 135 species of migratory birds. The Gwich’in native people fear the development
will destroy both the caribou and their ancient culture.
 Opposition: The Bush administration, led by Alaskan Republican Senator Frank Murkowski,
is acting quickly to open the ANWR. The Democrats and US environmentalists are opposed to
the plan and polls show the majority of Americans also reject the move. The US Geological
Survey estimates that total reserves in the ANWR equal a paltry six months worth of oil
for the US at current consumption rates.
Contact:
Greenpeace USA,
702 H Street NW,
Washington, DC 20001, US.
E-mail: greenpeace.usa@wdc.greenpeace.org
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Sudan
Major Companies: Talisman Energy (Canada), Petronas (Malaysia’s national oil
company), TotalFinaElf (France/Belgium), BPAmoco (Britain/US), Chinese National Petroleum
Corporation, Lundin Oil (Sweden).
Project: There are active wells and exploration continues in the oil-producing region
of southern Sudan. The main consortium, the Greater Nile Operating Company (GNOC), has
sent about $500 million to the brutal regime of President Omar Bashir in Khartoum.
Impact: The World Food Programme says 36,000 people have been displaced by oil
development in southern Sudan as the National Islamic Front (NIF) attempts to wipe out
insurgent non-Arab peoples in the southern half of the country. In January 2000, a
Canadian Government sponsored study found massive human-rights violations and concluded
that ‘oil is exacerbating conflict in Sudan’. The African nation is already
under UN sanction for terrorism and human-rights violations. The UN Rapporteur on Human
Rights in Sudan found a ‘systematic policy of bombing civilians’. President
Bashir says he will use oil revenues to buy the arms he needs to win the war.
 Opposition: There has been widespread condemnation of oil company support for the
bloody Sudanese regime. The same army which is responsible for the scorched-earth policy
across the south also protects corporate pipelines and drilling operations. In Canada,
Talisman Energy has come under intense scrutiny by churches, labour unions and
non-governmental organizations but has so far refused to suspend operations. As in Tibet,
BP’s $300 million investment in China’s national oil company has made it
possible for the Chinese to continue operations in Sudan. (China owns a 40% share in the
GNOC.) Activists are threatening to boycott BP stations in Britain and a church-based
campaign in the Netherlands has recently been launched to force oil companies out of
Sudan.
Contact: Inter-Church Coalition on Africa,
129 St Clair Ave E., Toronto, ON M4V 1N5,
Canada.
E-Mail: iccaf@web.ca
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Chad and Cameroon
Major Companies: ExxonMobil (US), Chevron (US), Shell (UK, Netherlands), Petronas
(Malaysia’s national oil company). Last June the World Bank also inked a $360 million
deal to help finance the project.
Project: The $3.7 billion Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project involves the
development of more than 300 oil wells in southern Chad and the construction of a 1,050 km
pipeline to Cameroon’s Atlantic coast.
Impact: Human-rights groups in both countries warn that the project will end up
strengthening the repressive Chadian regime. Chad’s oil-producing Doba region is the
heartland of revolt against the central government; state-supported forces have killed
hundreds of civilians there in recent years. Last November Chad’s leader Idriss Deby
admitted he had used a fifth of the $25 million ‘bonus’ given to him by
ExxonMobil, Chevron and  Petronas to buy weapons. Cameroon is widely regarded as one of the
world’s most corrupt states. Buckets of oil money will only worsen the problem. In
addition, the pipeline crosses some of Africa’s most important rivers and threatens
to open up Cameroon’s largely intact coastal rainforest to poaching and unregulated
logging.
Opposition: Under pressure from human-rights activists, Shell and Elf withdrew from the
project in 1999. The World Bank pressured Chad to adopt an environmental assessment plan
but critics say neither government has the capacity to deal with the project’s
impact. Catholic and Protestant churches in Cameroon worry about the project’s impact
on local people and the environment. The Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defence
of Human Rights is also opposed to the pipeline.
Contact: Environmental Defense Fund,
257 Park Ave S., New York, NY 10010, USA.
E-mail: contact@environmentaldefense.org
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Sumatra, Indonesia
Major Companies: ExxonMobil (US), Chevron (US), PT Arun (Indonesia)
Project: Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra produces a third of the nation’s
oil and 40 per cent of its liquified natural gas (LNG). ExxonMobil’s gas production
alone provides Indonesia with $2 billion yearly and 23 per cent of the country’s
total exports in 2000.
Impact: Aceh has been the centre of a militant independence movement since the early
1980s. Indonesian NGOs charge that ExxonMobil over 24 years has funnelled millions to the
police and military in return for protecting its installations. The Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) says oil income helps to shore up the Java-based central government and to bankroll
the army which has targetted anyone suspected of pro-independence sympathies. Joko
Darmono, the Government’s energy czar, recently admitted that ‘the guarantee of
security is the most important point demanded by ExxonMobil management’. The company
recently shut down all its LNG sites.
 Opposition: The Sumatran human-rights group, Kontras, says the company spends as much
as $500,000 a day on ‘security’. Given Indonesia’s reliance on oil
revenues, Free Aceh guerrillas have a ready-made target in ExxonMobil’s operations.
Acehenese NGOs charge that soldiers routinely intimidate and brutalize civilians during
their ‘sweeps’ for GAM supporters. Sources believe as many as 1,000 soldiers are
paid for directly by ExxonMobil. After the fall of Suharto in 1999 a dozen mass graves
containing hundreds of bodies were discovered near the Aceh oil fields by the Indonesian
Human Rights Committee.
Contact: WALHI (Indonesian Forum for the Environment),
Jl Tegal Parang Utara No 14,
Jakarta 12790, Indonesia.
E-Mail: WALHI@walhi.or.id
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Nigeria
Major Companies: Shell (Britain, Netherlands), Chevron (US), Texaco (US), Agip (Italy),
Nigeria National Oil Company (Nigeria) plus dozens of smaller independents.
Project: Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil-producing nation. Foreign multinationals
have been active in the Niger River delta for more than 40 years – with little heed
paid to the environmental or social impact of their actions. The delta is a maze of
pipelines and pumping stations. Chevron and Shell are now planning a new 1,000 km pipeline
to carry offshore gas from the delta to Benin, Togo and Ghana.
Impact: In the early 1990s tens of thousands of people came together in the Movement
for the Survival of the Ogoni People to oppose the devastation their homeland was
suffering at the hands of Shell and others. When Shell threatened to stop production
General Sani Abachi unleashed the military who systematically brutalized the delta’s
people. Hundreds were tortured and imprisoned. Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other
activists were hanged by the dictatorship in 1995 despite a worldwide protest by the
international community. The region’s wetlands and rivers have been poisoned,
destroying the fishing industry on which many local people depend. Today Shell and other
companies are back in action and local opposition is again building.
 Opposition: Sporadic protests continue in the Niger delta. Protesters from the Ijaw
people shut down Shell’s operations for several days recently. Later nine Ijaw were
killed when they attempted to shut down an Agip-run offshore pumping station to protest
against the company’s failure to fund promised community projects. According to
Africa Human Rights Watch, violent repression continues throughout the region to secure
the operations of foreign oil companies: ‘When local people protest, the security
forces use indiscriminate lethal force in response.’ Nigerian NGOs like the
Environmental Rights Action group are actively fighting the oil companies. Meanwhile, more
than 1,000 Ogoni people are still living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.
Contact: Environmental Rights Action,
214 Uselu-Lagos Rd., PO Box 10577, Benin City,
Nigeria.
E-mail: eraction@infoweb.abs.net
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Tibet
Major Companies: BPAmoco (Britain/US), Enron (US) and Agip (Italy) along with state-run
PetroChina.
Project: The Sebei-Langhou gas pipeline will pump natural gas from the Sebei gas fields
in the Tsaidam Basin in northern Tibet to Lanzhou in northwest China. Estimated cost: $580
million.
 Impact: BPAmoco has invested $580 million in PetroChina, some of which will provide
needed capital for this pipeline, plus a further $2.5 billion in joint ventures with the
Chinese National Petroleum Corporation. Despite decades of opposition by Tibetan
nationalists, China considers the Himalayan nation an integral part of its national
territory. Increasing economic activity is a key strategy to strengthen Chinese control
over Tibet.
Opposition: There is growing international opposition from NGOs and their supporters to
Western corporate investment which shores up Chinese rule in Tibet, including to the
Sebei-Langhou pipeline. The Chinese Government is unperturbed. It claims 20 million tons
of oil have already been pumped out of the Tsaidan Basin since 1989 and production is
expected to skyrocket in the next five years.
Contact: Free Tibet Campaign,
1 Rosomon Place, London EC1R 0JY, UK.
E-mail: mail@freetibet.org
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