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Contents |
Dear Friends
In this edition of our Resistance bulletin we are trying to cover a subject of great importance to the oil and gas industry: the exporting guarantee agencies, which are financial organizations that guarantee and insure First World investors on any exportation risks in the Third World. These companies have supported activities in the hydrocarbon sector, including the construction of oil ducts.
In this issue we include a few stories related to oil ducts and the resistance to them around the world. In the section on Protected Areas we describe what is happening in Kirthar National Park in Pakistan and share a touching story on the experiences lived by the Cocoma-Cocamilla people during the leak in Pacaya Samiria in Peru
Finally, we make a request for help in the campaign against the oil duct construction in Ecuador, which will cross the country from East to West, causing serious social and environmental impacts.
In solidarity,
Citizens worldwide are increasingly aware of global institutions (like the WTO and the World Bank) and their impacts on the environment and human rights. But other secretive government bodies such as export credit agencies have as big, if not bigger, impacts on the process of globalisation.
Export Credit Agencies and Investment Insurance Agencies, commonly known as ECAs, are public agencies that provide government-backed loans, guarantees and insurance to corporations from their home country that seek to do business overseas in developing countries and emerging markets. Most industrialised nations have at least one ECA, which is usually an official or quasi-official branch of their government.
Because of the inherent risks of controversial projects in the mining, forestry, oil and gas, coal, power and other sectors, many of these projects in the developing world could not go forward but for the support of bilateral ECAs. As a result, ECA-backed projects often despoil the environment and disrupt the lives of the people in the affected regions.
ECAs are now the world's biggest class of public IFIs, collectively exceeding in size the World Bank Group.
In several oil and gas projects ECAs are playing a role. This is the case of the Ocensa Pipeline in Colombia. Japanese and Italian ECAs support an oil pipeline project that reportedly failed to comply with host country environmental laws resulting in oil spills and forest degradation. The Colombian Army is accused of massive human rights abuses to protect the pipeline from a guerilla insurgency, leading to condemnations by MPs in the British Parliament.
Right wing death squads kill 11 people and abduct40, leading to a strike of oil and pipeline workers that halts all pumping operations in the pipeline. Guerrillas blow up the pipeline with dynamite, creating a huge fireball that burns alive 56 people, 28 of them children, and seriously injures over 100--Colombia's worst civil disaster in 34 years. The Ocensa Pipeline project demonstrates that ECA-backed projects lacking attention to social and environmental concerns result in severe political and economic risks.
Japanese Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) approved a direct loan of $121 million for the pipeline, and an untied loan of $300 million to develop the Cusiana and Cupiagua oil fields. SACE (Italy) backed $296 million of loans with a 5 years guarantee. Private Company owners include Ecopetrol (25%), TransCanada Pipelines and IPL Energy (17% each), British Petroleum and Total of France (15.2% each) and Triton Energy (9.6%).
The Oleoducto Central, or OCENSA project, used the financing to build the $2.1 billion crude oil pipeline from Cusiana and Cupiagua fields in the eastern foothills of the Andes to the Caribbean port of Covenas.
British Petroleum pumps some 400,000 barrels a day from its Cusiana and Cupiagua fields, in eastern Colombia, through the 800-kilometre Ocensa pipeline.
In its short life, the Ocensa pipeline project has been an environmental and social disaster. In of 1997, Colombia's Environment Ministry imposed fines and penalties on British Petroleum, Triton Energy and Ecopetrol for damage caused during the construction of Ocensa. The Ministry cited apparently large amounts of crude oil spilled during construction and testing and lying of pipeline in non-approved areas. Besides a cash payment of several thousand dollars, the companies were required to make large investments in the planting and maintenance of 148 acres of trees, due to damage caused during deviations from the plans allowed by Colombian authorities.
In May1998, the main oil workers union in Colombia went on strike to protest the murder of 11 people and the abduction of more than 40 others by army-supported right wing death squads allegedly involved in protecting the pipeline against guerillas.
It is evident that the political risks associated with this project warrant the highest environmental standards possible through ECA leverage. Britain's Guardian newspaper recently (October 17, 1998) accused British Petroleum of trying to supply arms to the Colombian army, regularly accused of severe human rights abuses, to protect its oil operations in Colombia. Several MPs in the British Parliament (Financial Times, October 21, 1998) repeated the accusations. BP suspended its security chief in Colombia, Roger Brown, and the company said it had opened an internal inquiry.
But BP, one of the main shareholders in the Ocensa consortium whose 500-mile oil pipeline runs from the foothills of the Andes to the Caribbean coast, denied the allegations. (Washington Times, 10/20/98).
The extreme lack of transparency on the part of JEXIM and SACE raises serious questions concerning preparation of environmental documents, including public consultations, related to the project, including any possible emergency response plans meeting international standards that responsible ECAs should have required to mitigate political risk to the project. Without appropriate emergency response plans subject to public accountability, necessary environmental protection in explosion situations is problematic.
Source: International ECA Reform Campaign. Home page.
The Cocama version of the leak in Pacaya Samiria. Indigenous letter to the world: The Water that PLUSPETROL contaminates.
We, the indigenous Cocama-Cocamilla people, belong to the linguistic group Tupi-Guarani. We are organized to form the Indigenous Association of Development and Conservation of Samiria, the Cocama Association for Development and Conservation San Pablo del Tipishca and the Association of Development and Conservation of Puinahua. We are writing this letter because we want people to understand what contamination of our water by the oil company PLUSPETROL means to us.
We wish to tell the World that part of our spiritual and material thinking and feeling is tied to our Mother Earth and Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. On one hand, on a spiritual level, our sacred word tells that the creation of the World is related to the origin of Water. In our tales, a powerful being is present, INI YARA, "Our owner", today also called Our Jesus Christ or "Tata Dios", and it is he who in the beginning, went transforming the Earth so that nothing was missing. Our grandparents tell the story that to create Water, our Owner held tightly to his bow and two arrows, one large one and one small one. Then he shot them into the sky. When these fell on the ground, the large arrow gave way to the rivers and the small one to the ravines. Because of this, Water appeared in the ground. It is also said that Tata Dios appeared all ragged and dirty navigating the rivers in his canoe. One day he decided to clean the filth on his body, and so as not to waste anything coming from his body, he transformed his dirt into fish. This is how all of the different types of fish came about, with scales and without scales, in the rivers. And so that there would be no abuse of the use of the fish, he placed a guardian for them, the Great Serpent, Mui Watsu. We believe that when a great healer dies in our community, their soul is ! transformed into this Great Serpent, "Mother of the Water". In punishment for the many deaths that happen in life, the Great Serpent lives at the bottom of the river to guard, raise and control the fish, our principal source of food. Through magic chants, we ask the mother Serpent that she is not petty with her children, and this depends on us using them sustainably, in other words we fish when it is necessary. As well, we believe that the changes in seasons during the year, make the river rise (winter) and fall (summer), and are caused by the displacement of the fish in the Waters of the river. And when she is resting, tired of working, she lies down at the edge of the river. There the water reflects her multicolored body creating a rainbow in the sky, ! Mui Watsu, mirror of the soul of the guardian of the resources that come from the water.
On the other hand, if we speak in material terms, the history of our ancestors, Tupi-Guaran', is well known, and their displacement from the East to the West cutting through the Amazon in search of "The Undamaged Land". In other words, a place with an abundance of animals and vegetable, where the earth was so fertile that it never grew tired and always produced a harvest, where there would be an infinity of birds and fish, where there would be plenty of festivities expressing the richness, community and brotherhood among people of the same blood; where there would be no space for evil: disease, hunger, contamination, slander and insults, lies and greed. Our ancestors arrived at and elected Pacaya-Samiria, a place that represented for our people "t! he land of abundance". In these lands our tasks are oriented towards the Waters, to live principally from the aquatic resources that Nature provides us with; to "walk" everyday on the water in our canoes; because every year the water fertilizes the banks of the rivers so that we can cultivate; because the water is a space where Beings sit and think the same as ourselves and the "yacurunas" (men of the water), the great Serpent ("mui watsu") mother of the fish, etc.
We announce to the World that on October 2, 2000, Evil and Harm, reverently rejected by us, penetrated our space and our hearts. The oil company PLUSPETROL, irresponsibly spilled 5,500 barrels of crude in San José Saramuro contaminating the Maraón River and our territory, the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. We see and feel the need to explain the ecological and social damage that has been caused by this company and which this company does not recognize, for according to their investigations, the waters have not been contaminated. The only thing that they still need to say from their analysis is that the crude from the spill has fertilized the water and our l! ands.
We do not need elaborate studies to say that this oil leak, seen with our own eyes, is infiltrating the waters from bank to bank of the river. The oil has not only contaminated and affected our territory, but our waters, the animals, the fish, the birds, the plants, as well as our bodies, our minds and our spirit. Evil surrounds us; disease now exists because of the contamination. There are more and more cases of children with high fevers and itchy skin. As well, there are people in the communities who are affected by black or white blotches on the skin, and some people have dry and broken skin from constant contact with the water.
Hunger is predominant in our communities and will likely continue because the fish, our principal source of food, are disappearing from the rivers. We know that the rising of the river that has now begun is due to the disappearance of the fish and the interruption in their migration that completes their reproductive cycle. We are worried because during these last few years the fish have not been migrating like they normally do in order to lay their eggs. We believe that the oil crude has made the Mother of the Waters, Mui Watsu, very sick.
Field observations that were carried out during and after the cleaning operations confirm that some of the beaches, where we plant our crops, were not cleaned effectively and part of the crude is now sediment or has remained adhered to our vegetables. The contamination has reached the subsoil as it has been buried in cavities along the edges of the river where we grow our vegetables. These wrong-doings which we have observed contradict what PLUSPETROL is saying, trying to minimize the severe impacts on the ecosystem and the indigenous communities, arguing that they have results produced by environmental consultants who were paid by the company.
We have received slander and insults from people who do not believe in our own self-determination as indigenous people. They say that we have opted to be indigenous in order to access economic advantages. At this pathetic statement we respond that today being indigenous does not necessarily mean putting feathers in our hair, or painting our faces, etc. but to demand that our difference is recognized in national society. We are different because we think differently. They do not know that to define ourselves as indigenous costs us blood, sweat and tears because if you are indigenous in this country you have to face the prejudices of the national dominant socie! ty who see us as if we were the backwardness and disgrace of the country.
It is a lie that we have been endowed potable water during the contamination period (that according to PLUSPETROL only lasted the first few days of November). The truth is that there was so much greed that there was a limited amount given and for only a very short time. Two months ago we were consuming water from the river with no guarantee of a serious technical study that would inform us of the state of the water.
"Our Blood" is established in the earth of Pacaya-Samiria and we have worked hard at defending it against the invasion of others. It is our job to defend and protect our environment against future leaks and contamination. We ask for the solidarity of all ecologists and environmentalists in this fight against PLUSPETROL, so that they IMMEDIATELY LEAVE THE PACAYA SAMIRIA NATIONAL RESERVE and that they compensate the populations affected by the leak.
Iquitos, 15 de enero del 2001.
rail.org.peThe Ecuadorian government has granted an offer to the company OCP, for the construction of a 500 km oil duct that will cross the country from East to West, affecting highly fragile areas of great ecological and agricultural importance to the country (read more details in the OIL IN THE TROPICS section). For years Acción Ecológica has been pushing a moratorium on the expansion of the oil frontier in the tropics. The crude that this oil duct will transport is heavy crude extracted from the last redoubt of Amazon virgin humid tropical forest in Ecuador, in the Heart of Yasuní National Park, which is also Huarorani territory. Acción Ecológica makes a call to all people and organizations that believe in the ! survival of the Amazon, to support this campaign against the construction of this oil duct and the bidding of the last virgin block of forest inside of Yasuní National Park.
If you would like to support the campaign, please write a letter to the Ministry of Energy and Mines eiaocp@andinanet.net with a copy to amazonia
accionecologica.org
Thank you for your solidarity.
Wildlife groups in Pakistan are taking Shell to court over what they claim are its "illegal" plans to drill for gas in Kirthar National Park.
They accuse Shell of using its influence within Pakistan's military government to weaken wildlife laws so that the project can go ahead.
Kirthar is one of Pakistan's largest protected areas. It is located over more than 3,000 Km2 of rugged mountains in the southern province of Sindh. It is a habitat for rare mammals, such the Sindh ibex and Urial sheep. Eight species of eagle, desert wolves, striped hyena and golden jackal also live there, and it is considered essential for the water supply of the 14 million people in nearby Karachi.
Kirthar is protected under Pakistani law, and a sign at the park entrance states that the "Clearing or breaking up of land for cultivation, mining or for any other purpose" is prohibited. The park is classified by the IUCN-World Conservation Union as Category II protected.
Under Pakistan's current military regime, laws can be amended without reference to Parliament. Earlier this year, the governor of Sindh Province, Mohammed Mian Soomro, a director of Shell-Pakistan until last year, amended local wildlife laws to allow pipeline construction in the park.
Permission for drilling will have to be granted by Pakistan's federal oil minister, Usman Aminuddin, who is a former executive of a Shell subsidiary, Burshane.
Shell has formed a joint venture with Premier Oil to manage the exploration programme, and Peter Cockcroft, the general manager, defended his company's actions. "We are keen to explore, find and produce gas from the park but only if legally permitted under the terms of our licence and the laws of Pakistan and only when we have an understanding of the park and of the impacts our activities may have on it," he said.
But, local groups fear the worst and have turned to the Karachi courts in an attempt to halt exploitation. Farhan Anwar, of Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment, said: "Shell's project is illegal. Our law clearly prohibits any kind of mining or exploration activity in these areas. But we are concerned that this massive corporation may be using its influence and contacts with ex-Shell employees now in government to trash our wildlife laws. We call on investors with money in Shell to ask this company how it can defend its action."
Source: Craig Bennett. Friends of the Earth
The Green/EFA Group in the European Parliament today called upon
European consumers to boycott American oil companies until the Bush administration changes its negative stance on climate change policies and takes part in the up-coming climate change conference in Bonn in July 2001.
Alexander de Roo, Vice-President of the Environment Committee in the European Parliament said in reaction to a declaration by the US administration that it considers the Kyoto Protocol as dead:
"The Greens EFA are shocked by the US' recent declarations on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol which show an utterly irresponsible and egoistic approach to this global threat.
Obviously, the American oil giants are one of the driving forces behind this spectacular reversal of US environmental policies by George Bush, who himself was working for the Texan oil industry. The US oil companies are pushing for a U-turn in environmental policies by opposing any reduction in green house gas emissions. It is no co-incidence that they are at the same time pushing for new drilling licenses in environmentally protected areas in Alaska.
"Europe must stand up to irresponsible US policies by rejecting them at the petrol pump. We call upon all EU citizens to boycott the US oil multinationals, namely Exxon (Esso), Texaco and Chevron. A polite request, such as that by the EU Summit in Stockholm, obviously will not change the Americans' mind. Unless the US rethinks its position, direct boycott is the only Language they will understand.
"Picketing petrol products from the US is a simple measure, which everyone who feels responsible for the world climate can do."
The Green/EFA Group will launch a campaign to boycott US multinationals. The Group has also placed the issue on the agenda of next week's plenary session in Strasbourg, where the European Parliament will adopt a sharp resolution against the environmental policies of the USA.
ALEXANDER DE ROO, MEP at 0031-626-436488 (mobile phone)
Press Office of the Green/EFA Group
Lagos (Reuters) - An unprecedented Supreme Court battle between Nigeria's federal and state governments over who controls the nation's oil resources begins on Monday.
Some politicians say that the outcome of the case, opening in the capital Abuja on Monday, could plunge the volatile country into chaos or even civil war, whatever the verdict.
"The court will decide one way or the other, one party will be aggrieved," leading human rights lawyer Olisa Agbakoba said in an interview with the National Interest daily on Sunday.
Nigeria's southern states, which produce the country's mainstay crude oil, have been agitating for greater control over oil revenues since the end of military dictatorship in 1999, when Nigerians became free to express themselves openly on key national issues.
Elected president Olusegun Obasanjo has previously defused the issue by agreeing to implement a constitutional formula for revenue sharing that allocates 13% of oil earnings to states producing the commodity.
But he angered oil states when he decided that oil from offshore fields belonged exclusively to the central government and would be excluded from the so-called derivation formula.
The six littoral states, which account for most of Nigeria's over two million barrels per day oil output, then threatened to wrest total control of oil and other natural resources and only pay taxes to the federal government.
Obasanjo warned the states that such a move could lead to civil war similar to the late 1960s conflict over the oil- producing region's failed bid to secede as the state of Biafra.
Federal Justice Minister and Attorney-General Bola Ige in February filed a case at the Supreme Court asking it to decide who had ultimate control over natural resources.
"The federal government has one view of this issue. The state has one view. The constitution says it is the court that can interpret it," Ige said in answer to politicians arguing in favour of a political rather than legal solution.
Leading politicians from the oil-producing states have warned Obasanjo against allowing the case to go to court. They say that it will heighten tensions at a time when many Nigerians are already disgruntled over worsening economic hardships, massive unemployment and the deterioration of public utilities.
"Our position is that this is not a matter for the Supreme Court. It is overheating the system unnecessarily," said Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who is from oil-producing Akwa Ibom State and Chairman of the Senate's Appropriation Committee.
"If it does not go our way there will be a total break down of law and order and I don't think Obasanjo needs that," Udoma told Reuters.
Although he is a member of Obasanjo's ruling party, Udoma's state would be hit hard if offshore oil, which accounts for over 90% of crude from its territory, were deemed as belonging to the federal government.
The central government reckons that 60% of Nigeria's oil is produced inland and 40% offshore. The oil states say the 13% of revenues they receive on the basis of where the oil is produced is in fact 60% of what they should get.
The Supreme Court last week named seven judges led by Chief Justice Muhammad Uwais to hear the case. All the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory have been joined in the suit and are sending their attorneys-general for the high-stakes drama that could be drawn out for months.
SOURCE: OilResistance-Africa
Information & strategies to support African oil struggles
"........I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come ......there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war the company has waged in the delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war duly punished. The crimes of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished......"
Ken Saro Wiwa - Port Harcourt, 21st September, 1995.
Excerpt from Ken's last statement to Justice Auta's kangaroo Tribunal.
Multibillion oil company Shell will be sued for its environmental crimes against the Ogonis in New York. A ruling in the US Supreme Court of 26th March upheld an earlier decision by the federal court. Shell - the oil giant with declared profit of 9 billion British pounds sterling in 2000 - should be sued in the US on human rights grounds.
Included in the suit by relatives of the murdered activists are the following:
"This is one of the best news Ogonis have heard in a long time. Just as predicted above by the Ogoni leader Ken Saro Wiwa in 1995, a day of reckoning has come for Shell to account for its gory activities of 40 years in Ogoniland." Said Mrs Gbenewa Phido, President of MOSOP-UK."
By 1993, Shell had mined oil from Ogoni worth an estimated $60 billion. In spite of the enormous wealth drained from this community, it remains one of Niger Delta's most deprived and under-developed community. Ogoni remains a poverty stricken land. There continues to be lack of electricity, water, schools, hospitals and employment opportunities in the community. Ogonis on taking stock of their situation had protested non-violently against this unfair treatment by both the Nigerian Government and its oil producing companies. Shell had seen this protest as a bruise on its ego and taint on its highly guarded reputation. For this reason Ogonis had to be stopped in a most drastic and brutal way to serve as an example to other communities. This initiated the deadly might of the Nigerian Military and Shell to quash the Ogoni protest. The aftermath of this coalition was the death of over 3,000 innocent and defenceless Ogonis. Shell confessed to Oputa human rights commission in Nigeria of buying arms and financing the military to kill Ogonis.
"Shell has confirmed apportioning more value to the flow of oil than the flow of Ogoni blood. The senseless and callous action of this multibillion company must be brought to book and punished and there is no better place than a court of law." Says Mrs Phido. For these reasons and more, Ogoni have vowed never to let Shell into their land again. Shell is however adamant about this and still insist on returning to Ogoni to drill the last drop of oil. A view Mrs Phido is vehemently opposed to. According to her, "Shell remains 'persona non grata' in Ogoni. Shell should be prepared to kill all generations of Ogoni before it can have access to our natural resources again. We believe 40 years is enough time for a people to be held in captivity as is our experience with Shell." she said.
Mrs Phido continued "Shell in the US court of justice is a welcome change to the sufferings endured by the Ogonis over the years. We want to see justice done for the blood that Ken Saro Wiwa and the other Ogoni shed on our land." "We demand that justice be done to the people of Ogoni who have endured decades of exploitation from this multibillion company whose sole interest is profit at the expense of the masses. For destroying our environment and allowing generations of Ogoni to wallow in poverty Shell must answer and pay for its crimes in Ogoni." She continued.
On a related issue regarding the environmental award being given to Shell by WEC, Mrs Phido said "Shell can buy as many awards as money can buy but it will never change the reality and history of its ruthless and greedy activities in Ogoni and other parts of the world where the truth speaks for itself." "MOSOP-UK organised a world wide petition against this award which has produced over 5,000 signatories as at the last count. This petition will be forwarded to the United Nation, WEC, UNEC and many other international organisations. We are confident that Shell will be disqualified from this award especially now that it has to answer to its environmental crimes in the United States courts." Mrs Phido concluded.
Source:
http://www.egroups.com/community/Ijaw_National_Congress
There are strong reasons to believe that the armed forces decision to urge the Wahid cabinet to agree to the launching of a 'limited military operation' in Aceh is closely related to pressure from ExxonMobil, the US company which produces natural gas from the Arun gas field in Aceh.
Exxon/Mobil's announcement that it was suspending operations in Aceh because of the security situation came within hours of the announcement in Jakarta on 12 March that the Wahid cabinet had formally branded GAM as a 'separatist movement', giving the armed forces the go-ahead to carry out these new military operations. Exxon/Mobil is by far Indonesia's largest producer of LNG and accounts for 30 percent of Indonesia's foreign exchange earnings from the oil and gas sector. There is no doubt that the suspension of LNG exports is a serious setback for the Indonesian economy at a time of continuing economic crisis and a foreign debt of $140bn and that it provided the military with a powerful argument in favor of launching these operations, reversing the policy favored by President Wahid to solve the conflict in Aceh by means of negotiations with GAM. The military have also been able, by means of this coup de grace, to re-establish its leading role in security operations in Aceh which, since early 2000, have been under the overall command of the Indonesian police force.
For several weeks prior to the switch in policy, senior generals were speaking very publicly about the fact that elite troops from Kostrad and other sections of the armed forces were receiving special training in anti-guerilla combat, street combat and combat in residential areas, in readiness for dispatch to Aceh so it is clear that preparations have been underway for some time.
The police-led Operasi Cinta Meunasah (love-the-mosque operation) in which territorial troops and non-organic reinforcements from outside Aceh were involved has now been replaced by an operation under military command. The use of the term 'limited' relates to the intention to concentrate these new security operations in certain parts of Aceh, primarily in North Aceh where ExxonMobil is based, in order to restore conditions under which the US company will be able to resume operations.
The US government is certainly closely following the fortunes of one of the country's foremost oil companies. With the coming to power of the Bush Administration, the question must be raised of the extent to which Exxon/Mobil's announced suspension of operations and the launching of the new military operations are the result of top-level pressure on Jakarta from Washington. George W. Bush has extensive interests in oil and obtained substantial funds from the oil industry for his presidential campaign and no one doubts that he would step in without hesitation to protect the interests of such a company.
Reports from Jakarta today focus heavily on the number of troops that have been dispatched to Aceh specifically for the purpose of providing ExxonMobil with security protection. But it is not as though this is anything new. The company has for years been given security protection by the Indonesian army. A recent investigation by the human rights organisation, Kontras-Aceh, concluded that the company spends Rp 5 billion a month ($500,000) for this special service. Their conclusion was based on the number of troops deployed to protect the company times the cost per day (Rp40,000) for the upkeep of each soldier.
On Friday, Minister- Coordinator for Political, Social and Security Affairs General (retired) Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono, was quoted as saying that the military was doing its best to defend the Exxon gas fields. 'This is the biggest security deployment in Indonesia ever to defend a vital installation', he said, according to AP. According to Antara, the security minister also wondered why the company which is now enjoying maximum protection is still not willing to resume its operations.
He refused to say whether Indonesia had been under pressure from the US to step up military protection for the company. 'It would be premature for me to say that there has been any such pressure.' Expressing what sounded like a sense of exasperation with the demands of ExxonMobil, Bambang Susilo was quoted by Antara as saying: 'I want to know what exactly it is that ExxonMobil really wants and to avoid a situation in which the armed forces are blamed.'
For people living in the vicinity of the company, the presence of these troops has a direct bearing on the level of human rights abuses, some of which are known to have been perpetrated within the grounds of the company. Moreover, while Jakarta regards the company as such a major factor in providing foreign exchange and revenue for the Indonesian state, the economic benefits for the local people are virtually zero.
Antara reported on Saturday that the TNI has sent three battalions and one cavalry company to protect the posts, the clusters, the gas fields and facilities of the company but TNI spokesman Vice Air Marshal Graito Usodo later sought to deny that these were new reinforcements, claiming that the troops had been there for the past two months and that only one extra battalion of special troops has been sent to defend the company.
The confusion surrounding the latest deployment of troops to defend the company suggests that the TNI wants to conceal the fact that it is conducting these new operations specifically at the behest of the US-based company. This could make the armed forces appear to be acting at the beck and call of a foreign power and damage their credentials as a force that works solely in the national interest.
For the people of Aceh, the decision to intensify the level of military operations in Aceh means one thing only, a heightened level of killings, disappearances and abuses that have been their lot since the late 1980s.
It is important to know the extent to which ExxonMobil and the Bush administration have been instrumental in the decision to deploy specially trained troops in order to further intensify the level of military operations. Even at their present level, dozens of lives are being lost every week and thousands of people are fleeing their homes as troops loot and burn villages with impunity.
An embargo on the sale of arms to Indonesia is still in place in the US which the Bush administration is unable to reverse because it cannot act against the wishes and resolutions of Congress. It would be an irony indeed if, with such an embargo in force, Washington is nevertheless able to collude with the Indonesian armed forces in its determination to impose a military solution on the people of Aceh.
Source: Carmel Budiardjo, TAPOL
tapolgn.apc.org www.gn.apc.org/tapol
This report details the oral her stories of women from the Niger Delta, as told to me over a period of three weeks in March 2000. Ordinary women who have become extraordinary by virtue of the violence they have experienced and the courage they have to speak out despite the risk they incur of retribution by the state authorities.
In presenting the stories it is highlighted the impact of militarization and oil exploration on the lives of women and girl. The stories give voice to the experiences of the women and girls who live in and around the many tributaries, rivers and creeks of the delta of the River Niger.
The focus of my study is the testimonies of the women I spoke with. The presentation is shaped by my experience of listening to the women, the circumstances of each interview, my memories of their faces and their lives.
The women of the Niger Delta are part of the communities of suffering and resistance that exist throughout the world. Unfortunately the testimonies can only give you the words, it cannot reproduce the tears, the sadness and pain that accompanied the words. The reader should be reminded therefore that behind the words are women whose hearts are swollen with pain but whose strength is uncompromising.
SOURCE: OilResistance-Africa
Available electronically at www.kabissa.org/ndwj/Commentary/Sok2/sok2
A web page has been created on information of Repsol activities. It is a critical view of the oil company that includes information of its impacts in Bolivia, Argentina and other countries. http://cascall.org/repsol/
The cry of oil has just come out. This publication, beautifully diagramed, covers various diverse themes related to the Colombian oil problem and the factors that determine its politics. For example, the publication includes an article that explains the relationship between Plan Colombia and the interest of multinational oil companies in maintaining their hegemony in the region.
There are also articles that include more global themes, such as the last meeting on Climate Change in The Haya, where environmental services were placed in very commercial categories in a growing CO2 market. There is a section on environmental impacts, including specific cases in Colombia.
This is a CENSAT publication, a group which also produces three pamphlets on "Environmental Impacts and the oil industry". The first covers seismic activity, the second drilling, and the third formation waters. These didactic pamphlets not only explain technical aspects about the generation of impacts, but are also guides for action and are very useful for activists or for local populations affected by oil activity.
The four publications can be obtained by writing to CENSAT Agua Viva censatcolnodo.apc.org .
Natural gas is a major source of energy and Nigeria's gas reserves are estimated at up to ten times as large as its crude oil reserves. Nigeria contains an estimated 124 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves (10th largest in the world) with upside estimates of associated and non-associated gas being as high as 300 Tcf which the NNPC hopes to reach in the new millenium. Associate gas production is concentrated on fields located onshore and in swampy areas of the Niger River Delta.
Around 3,000 million standard cubic feet of gas is produced annually. Due to a lack of gas utilization infrastructure, Nigeria flares 75% of the gas it produces and re-injects 12% to enhance oil recovery. Although high, this is significantly below the over 98% flared in 1971. Nigeria has set the year 2010 as its target for achieving zero flaring of natural gas.
With the aim of increasing gas utilisation, the NNPC set up a company, the Nigerian Gas Company Ltd in 1988, with the specific task of developing, harnessing and marketing natural gas from the domestic market. A number of projects are being developed to increase the utilisation of gas and to reduce gas flaring. In 1999, the Nigerian government set in place incentives to make the utilisation of gas more attractive and to check the waste in the Nigerian gas sector through flaring. The incentives will include approval of alternative funding for gas projects, a comprehensive energy policy and tax concessions. Other incentives promised to investors in the gas sector were a higher capital allowance, investment tax credits and lower royalty in comparison with oil as well as effective monitoring of oil companies' pledge to eliminate gas flaring in the country by 2008.
As a result of these directives and incentives, together with mounting pressure by environmentalists, all the major oil producing companies are executing projects aimed at substantially reducing the amount of gas flared in the course of their operations. Several of the oil JVs have plans for using the gas currently flared and are committed towards utilising 100% of associated gas for commercial or productive purposes by 2010. In 1999, Mobil declared its intention of cutting gas flaring to 10% by 2004.
The Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) has in place more than 1,000 km of pipeline with seven gas systems and fourteen compressor stations. About 75% of NGC's sales are to four thermal power stations run by the Nigerian Electrical Power Authority. The major internationals have set up a number of gas projects.
The most ambitious of these is the Bonny Island LNG facility which is estimated to cost $3.8 billion. Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Corporation (NLNG) comprised of the NNPC (49%), Shell (25.6%), Elf (15%) and Agip (10.4%) is developing the project. Initially the facility will be supplied from dedicated gasfields but NLNG intends to use at least 50% associated gas which is currently flared. The first two trains are complete and the third train was commissioned in 1999 for completion at the end of 2000. With three trains operational it will be possible to run the entire LNG facility on associated gas.
The first exports of gas from the facility began in October 1999, with the first shipments to Spain, Italy and Turkey, under long term purchase agreements.
The Escravos gas project (EGP) is a joint venture between NNPC (60%) and Chevron (40%). Phase I has been completed at a cost of $570 million and produces 165 Mmcf/d of associated gas from the Okan and Mefa fields. Phase II is under construction and was expected to come on line at the end of 1999, with phase III (under engineering) expected to start up in 2004.
In June 1999, Chevron and Sasol signed a JV to construct a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant which is expected to use Sasol technology and be sited close to Chevron's EGP facilities in the Niger Delta region.
The West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) will be used to supply Benin, Togo and Ghana. The project was first mooted in 1995. A feasibility study was completed in 1999 with the World Bank stating that the countries could save about $500 million in primary energy costs over 20 years. In November 1999, the US Export Import Bank expressed interest in maintenance financing of the WAGP.
Now, Nigeria has begun plans to set up another liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to rival the existing Nigeria LNG complex (OGJ Online, Feb. 21, 2001). The plant would be located west of the Niger Delta, Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Energy Rilwanu Lukman said at the signing of a memorandum of understanding for a feasibility study on the plant. The memorandum was signed by multinational oil companies including ExxonMobil Corp., Conoco Inc., Chevron Corp., and Texaco Inc. ExxonMobil was chosen to lead the study team, said Lukman.
Shell, Elf Petroleum Nigeria, and Mobil all have joint ventures with NNPC to improve gas utilisation. Shell's Odidi project is expected to come online at the end of 2000, and harness flare-gas. Elf is to invest $100 million in the second phase of its Obite gas project. Mobil is in a joint venture with NNPC in the Oso NGL project located offshore Nigeria. The Oso project reached its full capacity in 1999.
There are risks associated with investment in Nigeria. These can be grouped into three main categories, political activity and civil unrest, border disputes and government underfunding. There is also the continuing problem of corruption within the system.
ECAs have played a major role in financing environmentally and socially unsustainable investments that have depleted Indonesia's extraordinary natural wealth. As a result, the country experienced the rapid depletion of its natural resources. During the Suharto regime, forest degradation reached a rate of two million hectares per year. Investment projects such as factories, plantations, and mines not only destroyed natural resources, but also gave rise to other significant environmental and social impacts including the destruction of the livelihoods of the local peoples who owned, managed, and utilised these resources. Security forces were used to prevent forest-dwelling, rural, and river-side peoples from defending the natural resources upon which their livelihoods and communities depended. In resource rich regions, the violation of human rights was a routine occurrence.
ECAs played a key role in assisting many foreign investors in supporting the Suharto regime system of economic and political monopolies. The regime's military security approach assured low costs for land appropriation and a relatively docile and inexpensive labour force. Foreign investors, often supported by ECA finance, competed to align themselves with the powerful business interests close to the Suharto family - through economic links - i.e. the offering of cost-free investment shares -to Suharto's children, other relatives, and business associates. In return, investors were assured of access to lucrative sectors of the Indonesian economy and were able to receive "assistance" from Indonesia's armed forces when it came to clearing people off of land for their projects, stifling labour unrest, or preventing mobs from storming their polluting factories.
Between 1992 and 1996, export credit agencies' exposure in Indonesia grew by 25%. By 1996, 24% of Indonesia's total external debt — approximately $28 billion — was held by export credit agencies (ECAs) supporting foreign investment in mega-projects linked closely to the Suharto regime.
The longer report on which this case study summary is based provides an overview of thirty-three projects in Indonesia supported by ECAs between 1994 and 1997, valued at total of $15 billion. It explores the relative contributions of the ten ECAs most active in Indonesia, looking in greater detail at the Export-Import Bank of Japan. It then provides a brief overview of the ten largest ECA-supported projects which account for $12.4 billion or 83% of the value of the thirty-three projects surveyed.
Of the 33 projects surveyed, the most significant amount of ECA-leveraged finance was concentrated in four sectors, the largest being the power and paper/pulp sectors. The third and fourth largest sectors with ECA involvement were mining and state-owned refineries, controlled by Pertamina, Indonesia's notoriously corruption-riddled national petroleum company.
After several years, the government of Ecuador conceded a bid to the firm OCP from Ecuador for the construction of a new oil duct, which will cross the country from East to West. This duct will transport poor quality heavy crude. It will be 500 km in length and will pass the three regions that make up continental Ecuador. The majority of the crude transported will come from Yasuní National Park, the last oil block, which still has not been in favor of the oil industry because of its importance as the last pristine corner of Yasuní National Park and at the same time home to the Huaorani indigenous people.
Now that the oil duct is going to be a reality in the very near future, the government has announced the Tenth Round of oil bidding, which will offer the ITT site in the Herat of Yasuní National Park.
OCP Ecuador is a consortium made up of Agip, Alberta, Occidental, YPF. The construction company will be Techint from Argentina. According to the new modernization law of the state, the construction of the oil duct will be more than US$ 1.100 million. This price is incredibly valorized since the price for the same duct in 1999 would have been US$ 400 million. The difference in price will cost the country.
The construction of the OCP caused changes in the Constitution of the Republic, recently approved in 1998. The route of the oil duct was approved without any Environmental Impact Study for support. There was also no previous consultation process with the people who will be affected by the oil duct, nor was there consultation regarding the changes in the Constitution.
The consulting agency, EMTRIX, only had two months to develop the Environmental Impact Assessment of a 500 km route that will pass through extremely complex ecosystems. The oil duct will pass through an enormous seismic fault, and at the foot of the influencing zone of Guagua Pichincha and Reventador, two active volcanoes, the first of which started acting up two years ago. The route of the oil duct will cover very soft and vulnerable soils, in regions of high rains and a lot of mudslides. The Mindo valley has been considered by Bird Life as the Bird Capital of the World because of the immense concentration of birds that live there. The oil duct will damage i! mportant wildlife corridors, affecting local fauna.
Many people survive on tourism and raising livestock. Both activities will by seriously affected by the construction and future functioning of the oil duct. The oil duct will also pass through other fragile areas of ecological importance, passing through all of the ecological floors of the country, including zones where rivers and streams start, prime agriculture areas, areas where the soils are very instable and seismically active, primary tropical forests, etc. Close to 40 populated areas will be affected by the OCP.
The closeness to Colombia das additional risks, since there have been more than 670 assaults on the oil duct in the last 10 years. With Ecuador's participation in Plan Colombia and the increasing violence in the country, the oil duct could constitute an important military objective. In fact, in the past year there have been two attacks on the Trans Ecuadorian Oil Duct system (SOTE). Ecuador has already suffered the impacts of badly planned oil ducts, such as the SOTE, constructed 30 years ago by Texaco, and which has collapsed several time, resulting in the death of several people. The SOTE has spilt close to 20 000 000 gallons of crude.
"Norandino Gas pipeline, a time bomb", Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, mar (IPS).
An indigenous woman interrupted the assembly of shareholders of a Belgium company in Brussels in 1998, in protest of the construction of a gas duct in northeast Argentina. The same woman alerted by radio this month the fire caused by flaws in the construction. The sources of the fire occurred in three parts of the province of Salta, in the Yungas jungle, which the Norandino gas duct crosses. A Belgian and Argentine company built the duct in order to distribute energy throughout the north of Chile.
The ducts ruptured because of strong rains, and the escaped gas ignited the fires. "The populations living in the area saw a blaze in the night and advised the hospital and the fire department. The following day a member of the community came down from the mountains at the edge of the San Andrés River to request that the company be advised", said Serafina Sánchez, the person in charge of the community radio, in the satellite district of Ortón. Sánchez is president of the organization Tincu Nacu, which means "meeting place". From her headquarters she manages the radio and administrates the money the gas duct builders have given in exchange for "permission" to ! cross the Yungas jungle. The jungle, whose name means "abundance" in the colla language, covers some three million hectares in northeast Argentina and in the south of Bolivia. In Argentina, the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Catarmarca and Tucumán are included.
The most biodiversity is found in the Salta monta-osa zone. "The Yungas ecosystem is the second with the most biodiversity in the country after the jungle in the northeast", explained Emiliano Ezcurra of Greenpeace. Here we find a biological corridor which is a critical conservation area in the son and which is crossed by the gas duct.
The project had caused strong opposition in 1998, in Greenpeace as well as in the colla residents represented by Tincu Nacu, and particularly by Sánchez. The community, which years ago cried out for the right to own these lands, is made up of 350 families in the high mountain area. Environmentalists recommended a rerouting of the gas duct from the biological corridor or suspending the entire construction. But the consortium, made up of Techint from Argentina and the Belgium firm Tractebel considered that going though Yungas would cut the route short and save on costs.
This is how a polemic situation began. Greenpeace and the Fundación Vida Silvestre maintain that the Yungas houses the one of the only two families of jaguars, a species with only 200 living specimens. There are also a wide variety of toucans, monkeys, frogs, pumas and insects. The Fundación assures that 60 percent of the birds that inhabit Argentina are concentrated there, and that, according to a study done by the German Cooperation Ministry with data from 1993, "in just one tree in Yungas you can find more ant variety than in one country in Europe".
Environmental experts as well as indigenous people warn about the alterations that the ecosystem could suffer due to constructions that require intensive clear-cutting. In fact, the fires produced this month are due to such causes. "When the jungle is deforested, the soil is left in a very fragile state and is prone to mudslides due to rain and the rising San Andrés river", explained Oscar Soria from Greenpeace to IPS. Proof of this is that when it rains, the gas duct rises to the surface even though it is buried three feet under the soil. Three months ago Tincu Nacu filmed pieces of the gas duct that had risen to ! the surface because of the water washing away the earth that covers it. This month, because of the strong rains, the river rose producing the above mentioned effects in three sites.
Cuesta Chica, Cuevas and Trancas were the three zones that had leaks that initiated the fires, that did not cause great damage because of the humid climate at this time of the year, and because the valves automatically closed when the fire started. "We always said that this was not an adequate or appropriate area for this construction. The river is very big and we know from centuries ago that it produces flooding. Because of this we tried to get the gas duct rerouted, even though it would sacrifice part of the jungle", remarked Sánchez.
The consortium avoided recognizing the fire, until Greenpeace -alerted by Tincu Nacu-gave out the information. "We had warned them that their environmental impact program did no contemplate effective emergency measures for such a difficult access zone", said Soria. Now, the installations in Mejillones and Tocopilla, in the mining area in the north of Chile are without gas because of the fires. Engineers from Norandino recognized that the repair could be delayed due to difficulties in accessing the area, located in a 30-meter deep ravine. The fact that the fire broke loose in a large hole impeded its spreading. But the people of the area are scared. "It is like living in a time bomb", explained Sánchez. There are people living only 500 meters from the spot where the fire is and they do not sleep at night.
In 1998, Greenpeace had settled the payment of two plots from the Belgian company Tractebel in the name of the Tincu Nacu president, who appeared at a company assembly in Brussels and, with the assistance of a translator, stood by her complaints regarding the environmental impacts caused by the gas duct.
Sánchez said then that the shareholders at Tractebel, that Techint had offered them 350.000 dollars to waive their claim. Finally, they accepted the money. "When we saw that there would be a gas duct with or without our support, we decided to sign an agreement in which the community is granted the money if the gas duct passes through our land. We also signed a clause for extraordinary payment on any damages", Sánchez indicated.
The money has not yet been used in work to improve quality of life in the community. "We have it deposited for the long term because we still have not defined what use we want to give to it, and we have not had much experience with managing so much money".
Meanwhile, the gas duct, which was finished in 1999, has been an absolute headache for the local population. Sánchez feels tricked; "They told us they would work with the latest technology and with all of the security measures necessary, but look at what happened with just a bit of strong rain; the jungle almost went up in flames".
(FIN/IPS/mv/mj/en/01)
A large coalition of Tibetans and human rights activists, faced the giant British oil company BP Amoco for its investments in China for the construction of an oil duct that will cross-traditional Tibetan lands. If the forces put into BP Amoco do not give the desired results, the forces will be turned over to the state firm PetroChina. The Tibetan activists have attracted international attention to BP Amoco and other firms investing in the project. This is a follow up to the successful campaign carried out against the World Bank, when because of one its projects tried to place Chinese population in traditional Tibetan territory.!
As the principal investor in PetroChina, BP is obtaining profits by depleting Tibet's natural resources and the consolidation of Chinese control in the country, stated the president of the International Campaign for Tibet. After half a century of occupation, China still see Tibet as its western treasure for its natural resources in the remotest part of the Himalayas to be extracted to maintain the Chinese economy.
Lands such as those in Tibet and Burma, rich in natural resources, are treasures for transnational corporations. Traditional societies who not only live in these areas rich in natural resources, but are also rich in human values, knowledge and the way they understand life, are victims of evil forces; of the transnational companies who try and control these regions for far markets. Under a mistaken concept of progress, what they are doing is shortening life on the Planet.
In spite of all of this, the emphasis should be on an atmosphere of compassion and understanding such as the support and practices of HH Dalai Lama. Only when the suffering of the world is understood can a process of curing begin.
Prashant Varma
Source: Seed for Peace, Vol. 17 No.1 January-April 2001. Thailand.
The jagged shadows
Snatched by the night begin to fade
The palm-tree bow
Plays one last note
On a lingering ray of light
The nomad breeze
Unfurls
Ever so slightly
Thetcha-tchas' shake and shiver round about
The water
Mirrow the prancing reeds
Dancing the bamboula
On the bed of rags the little black chinl
Hears in the quivering hollow
of his belly
The thunder of hunger