Tag Archives: drc

Oil activist in DRC slams repression & Perenco secrecy during interview

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Pastor Jacques Bakulu has been campaigning against oil companies operating in western Congo for over 20 years. The secretive Anglo-French company Perenco took over Chevron’s concession in 2004 and claims to be producing 25,000 barrels a day. None of its four contracts are publicly available. In February this year Perenco were once again accused of pouring toxic waste into the Atlantic.

There are other companies looking to exploit onshore and offshore fields in the next few years, including UK-registered Surestream. On the other side of the country, two unknown companies have just been granted a license to explore at Lake Albert and the government has plans to carve up the massive cuvette centrale in the search for more oil.

Bakulu has witnessed at first hand DRC’s first foray into oil production and worries that Bas-Congo’s experience will be replicated across the country.

What are communities angry about in Bas-Congo?

Lack of jobs. Always. We know the oil is there and for twenty years it has been coming out of the ground but there are no jobs and there is no development. There is no electricity in Moanda [the capital of the province]. The environment is being damaged every day. Gas flaring happens all the time and the air is polluted. And it’s all kept secret.

What have you seen of the contract Perenco is operating under?

We have never seen the concession contract! We are still trying to see it after all these years. But we know the type of contract is the first mistake. With the concession arrangement the government only receives tax, we don’t know the real amount of oil and the company says they have no obligations to the people. We have always asked ministers to change the contract to a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). We’d have more control that way. But the problem remains that we still don’t have an oil law! It’s with Parliament only now. And the government is incapable of making contracts and negotiating.

DRC does not have a national oil company; not really. Cohydro trades, that’s it. That’s why all our technicians are in Cabinda or Angola. We need to build expertise.

A PSA would not necessarily be that much better, depending on the terms. Many PSAs are actually thinly disguised concession agreements.

Well, I once said to Perenco, ‘We want a PSA’ and they said to me, ‘Sure, we have no problem with that, we and the government will have the same rights as now. It’s no different!

How do people protest?

It’s difficult because there is so much poverty. Also, oil is offshore as well as onshore. Our organisation CEPECO is always with communities seeking to build awareness and encourage opposition. There have been many demands for jobs. People have blocked roads for a day and the technicians have not been able to get to their platforms. In January 2010, in Boma people protested inside an installation itself demanding work. The company actually invited people inside for a meeting but when they got in they were put in cars and taken to the police. 16 people were arrested.

Do people also protest specifically about the environmental damage?

Yes, they do. But people do want the oil to be produced. I can’t be against oil completely. We need it. It’s the only way out of poverty for Bas-Congo because we have nothing.

This interview was conducted by Taimour Lay with Pastor Jacques Bakulu in Kinshasa in May 2010.

PLATFORM reveals Congo oil contracts that threaten resource wars and $10 billion rip-off

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Tullow & British Embassy push disputed deal that could cut Congo’s revenues by $10 billion

Confidential oil contracts held by UK companies Tullow and Heritage in the Democratic Republic of Congo were leaked today, revealing the danger of economic rip-off and rights abuses in one of Africa’s most unstable countries.

The Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) are accompanied by a legal analysis, ”A Lake of Oil – Congo’s controversial contracts compromise rights, environment & safety”, published in English and French by PLATFORM in partnership with the African Institute for Energy Governance (Afiego).

As the dispute between Tullow/Heritage and the South African-led Divine Inspiration consortium over lucrative oil licences on Lake Albert comes to a head [2], the contract terms have been released for the first time. [3] PLATFORM’s analysis compares revenues delivered by two competing contracts, revealing that:

* Both Tullow/Heritage & Divine/H Oil’s contracts guarantee excessive profits, at the expense of Congo’s poor
* Tullow’s contract terms reduce the Congolese take by around 15%, compared to Divine’s.
* If recognised, Tullow’s contract will cut Congolese government revenues by over $10 billion – a figure equivalent to the country’s entire national debt. Tullow and the British Embassy in Kinshasa have been lobbying hard for these contract terms. This represents a significant transfer of wealth from some of Africa’s poorest to British and Irish investors.

In ”A Lake of Oil”, PLATFORM also raises concerns about:

* Co-operation between oil companies and military groups and the likelihood of escalating resource-driven war in eastern Congo.
* The legal rights granted to flare natural gas
* The complete absence of penalties for environmental damage
* The ‘stabilisation clause’, which will restrict DRC’s ability to improve its environmental protection and human rights standards in the future

Alfred Buju, head of the Justice and Peace Commission in Ituri, DRC, at the heart of Exploration Block 2, said: “This report reveals the contracts that will affect our communities and raises serious concerns about who will benefit from oil extraction in Ituri. We need the government and international companies to be honest and clear – will our environment be protected? The history of natural resources in eastern DRC makes us worry that oil will lead to more conflict.”

PLATFORM Campaigner Mika Minio-Paluello said, ”The reality is that extracting Congolese crude will escalate resource wars, transfer wealth from Congo’s poorest to London’s richest, create new health problems for local communities, increase corruption and pollute the land, water and air. It is up to social movements and civil society to create the pressure to defend rights, livelihoods and Congo’s rich environment.”

PLATFORM Researcher Taimour Lay in Bunia, Congo DRC, said “The confidential documents we have published make clear that the British government and oil companies have been lobbying for terms which leave Congo significantly worse off than another contract already on the table. This shows a wanton prioritisation of profit and British control of African resources over all else.”

Taimour Lay added, “Tullow’s statements demonstrate strength in corporate responsibility rhetoric. Yet their practice here on Lake Albert tells a different story – one of arrogance, environmental damage, collusion in secrecy and indifference to human rights abuses.”

New oil discoveries to drive future conflicts in West Africa?

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New oil finds off the coast of West Africa raise fears of oil corporations causing increased militarization in a region not yet touched by the crude resource curse.

In mid-September US corp Anadarko and Irish/British company Tullow announced a major oil-discovery off the coast of Sierra Leone. The FT’s map below shows how this find coupled with Tullow/Anadarko’s existing Jubilee field off Ghana

”established a whole new, active hydrocarbons system that spanned at least 1,000km to the coast of Ghana and perhaps all the way to the Latin American nation of Guinea.”

According to the FT, Tullow & Anadarko have snapped up the right to explore much of the coastline between their Ghanaian field and the Venus well off Sierra Leone. We might also see the larger oil majors like BP or Shell trying to buy their way into this new basin, expanding their existing operations in the Niger Delta further west.

”The basin could be a game changer for the industry. Analysts at Sanford Bernstein believe it could attract big companies which are not present there.”

Tullow Oil is attracting attention both for its rapid expansion in Africa and for concerns over its role in feeding conflict and militarization. In 2008 the Congo-DRC government accused Tullow of enlisting the Ugandan army to cross the border into North Kivu to conduct prolonged military operations inside its territory, and as a result confiscated Tullow’s licences in the region.

However, Tullow was allowed to return to Congo (DRC) after a March 2009 agreement between Pres Museveni of Uganda & Pres Kabila of DRC covering military co-operation & collaboration in exploiting oil discoveries by Lake Albert (on the border). The agreement and joint Ugandan & Congolese attacks on militias in the area in spring seemed to leed to response attacks from the rebels.

In Uganda itself, there has been increasing government talk of the “threat” to the Lake Albert region and oil operations there from “new groups”. This is probably partly to justify the building of “oil surveillance posts” – army bases – being built near to Tullow & Heritage’s oil operations. To construct a new base near Hoima, the government plan to evict 2,000 families living on 10 square miles surrounding a refugee settlement. While local residents & MPs have promised to resist the eviction, an empathetic army spokesman said “They [the refugees] are lucky we are not charging them with criminal trespass.”

Increased conflict connected to Tullow is not restricted to onshore oil extraction. The company owns a 32% stake in offshore oilfields on the Bangladeshi-Burmese border, which have led to recent naval escalation between gun boats over maritime boundaries.

While the Niger Delta’s ongoing conflict is very specific to its history of environmental exploitation and repression of local communities, the role of both the state and oil companies in creating & feeding the conflict is clear. Liberia and Sierra Leone are still recovering from civil wars fuelled by resources destined for European and American markets, including diamonds & timber. The seeming militarising impact of Tullow’s operations elsewhere does not bode well for Sierra Leone, Liberia or Ivory Coast.