World Bank decides to fund oil project in Chad & Cameroon, despite human rights and environment problems

The World Bank and IMF have made the privatization of oil production a standard part of their program requirements, and a condition of debt relief in the poorest countries. They are helping the large oil companies expand throughout the Third World and Eastern Europe, funding operations that are seriously damaging to the environment and people in local communities. The Chad–Cameroon pipeline is the latest project up for financing by the World Bank. Despite the public outcry about the project, the Bank's board of directors have caved in to corporate pressure and approved the project in June 2000.

The oil from 300 oil wells, to be drilled in southern Chad, will be piped through a 650–mile pipeline to the Atlantic coast of Africa. The World Bank Group is expected to provide a $115 million loan to the governments of Chad and Cameroon, and $250 million to a consortium lead by Exxon Mobil Corporation. Other major partner is Petronas of Malaysia, which is also involved in Sudan despite the intensifying civil war, repression, and government-sponsored murder of thousands of people.

Communities in both Chad and Cameroon did not ask that the project be cancelled. They know there is money to be made in oil development. They just want things to be put on hold until risks can be reduced enough to make it a viable project for their people and for the local environment. There are other ways to improve the lives of the people of these countries. If Cameroon's debts could be reduced, for example, it would be able to hold on to some of the 40% of government revenues that go abroad in debt payments.

The Bank approved the funding in the face of serious criticism:

Chad is infamous for its widespread human rights abuse. The massacre of hundreds of people in oil producing regions in 1997 and 1998 has not been investigated. State security forces kill, torture, rape and beat people with impunity. Freedom of speech and of the press is restricted, and human rights groups cannot operate freely. A member of parliament who asked about how the profits from this project would be shared was thrown into jail for eight months.

Corruption in Cameroon is so widespread it has been rated the most corrupt nation on earth for the past two years. While human rights violation is not as bad as it is in Chad, activists are subject to harassment and illegal searches. A new law requires nongovernmental organizations to have a government permit to operate, but doesn't give the criteria by which the granting of a permit will be made.

Extrajudicial killings and disappearances at the hands of security forces are part of the political landscape in Cameroon. Prisoners are beaten and tortured with impunity, journalists are harassed, and indigenous Pygmies face discrimination.

Of course, we know that this is not the first time the desire for oil profits has brought human rights abuse. In Nigeria, Shell helped prop up a military dictatorship that suppressed the dissent of the Ogoni people and executed activist Ken Saro–Wiwa. In 1998 Chevron provided transport for military personnel who killed Ijaw youth who were protesting at oil installations, and is now involved in the Chad–Cameroon pipeline deal.

As for the environment Exxon Mobil has no oil spill management plan, although the pipeline will cross several major rivers. Upgrading of roads is expected to lead to related problems, like logging and illegal poaching in the otherwise inaccessible areas of the unique forest areas, including Cameroon's coastal rainforests.

The CEO of Exxon Mobil was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that poor countries cannot afford environmental protection. This is a man who heads a corporation responsible for churning out 601.4 million metric tons of CO2 each year, more than the carbon emissions of Canada or the United Kingdom.

The World Bank has contributed to climate change by financing the production of 38 billion tons of carbon – more than a year's worth of carbon emissions for the whole world – since 1992. It has joined other international financial institutions in providing millions of dollars a year to support fossil fuel projects, including coal–fired power plants in China and India, the most carbon intensive sources available.

Although human rights and the environment will take a beating as this project goes through, the protection of investors seems assured. The World Bank is assessing a 10% insurance fee on the loan to Cameroon, already rated a "heavily indebted poor country" because of risk. Exxon Mobil has negotiated agreements with Chad and Cameroon to place the project outside of national laws in case of disaster.

The World Bank's board of directors, by voting for funding this project, have decided to continue supporting the oil companies at the expense of human rights and the environment.

– Derek MacCuish