Another Pipe
Dream
Communities Respond to Nightmare of a
Proposed West African Pipeline
General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's
civilian president, doesn't understand why
any "unnecessary distractions" should delay
the speedy completion of an economic
venture as important as the West African
Gas Pipeline. He has called on members of
the consortium sponsoring the pipeline to
go ahead with the project.
The pipeline was conceived by Chevron as
a means of supplying natural gas from
Nigeria to special consumers in Benin, Togo
and Ghana. To develop such a huge
transnational project, Chevron entered into
discussions with the state-owned Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, the Ghana
National Petroleum Corporation, and later
Société Togolaise de Gas and Société
Beninoise de Gaz. These companies formed
the West African Gas Pipeline Consortium
with the promise to build a pipeline to
make us cheer.
The scheme is this: Gas currently flared
in the Niger Delta (to the detriment of the
local populations and the environment) will
be piped to Ghana, Togo and Benin in order
to provide the badly-needed energy which is
necessary for the development of these
countries. This way, the West African Gas
Pipeline project would contribute to
reducing gas flaring in Nigeria while at
the same time promoting regional
integration and ensuring prosperity for the
people of the West African sub-region.
However, this rosy picture painted by the
project sponsors does not reflect the
reality on the ground.
Chevron’s Track Record
Chevron, the managing sponsor and executor
of the project, has promised that in
dealing with local people they will "strive
to leave them better than we met them".
This, however, does not conform to the
devastation and deaths that this
transnational oil company has wrought in
the Niger Delta area where it has been
drilling for oil and gas in partnership
with the Nigerian government. A ravaged
environment and communal violence is what
the people have received in response to
Chevron's presence there.
The company has always professed its
commitment to dialogue and community
development. But when in May 1998 the
impoverished indigenous people of Ilaje
canoed to Chevron's offshore Parabe
platform to seek discussion with the
company about the destruction of their
fishing waters, Chevron responded by
inviting Nigerian soldiers in helicopters
to shoot at the people. Again in January
1999, Nigerian soldiers were ordered by
Chevron to rain bullets on the people of
Opia and Ikenyan. While these peoples were
mourning their dead, Chevron was concluding
plans with it partners to develop the WAGP
with gas from their lands without bothering
to inform them.
Nigerian laws do not encourage oil
companies to consult with the local
communities that bear the brunt of oil and
gas exploitation. The central government
holds legal control of all land, and it is
always keen on signing away community
farms, forests and streams for oil and gas
fields. Communities in the Western Niger
Delta that had noticed the intensification
of work on Chevron's Escravos gas gathering
facility and the expansion of gas drilling
were not aware of a connection to the
transnational pipeline.
Communities Step In
Recognizing the dangers inherent in a huge
transnational gas pipeline executed in
secrecy, Environmental Rights Action/FoE
Nigeria and the Oilwatch network initiated
an information and consultation process to
give communities the opportunity to respond
to the threat of another major gas project.
A meeting to discuss the project was
organized in March 2000, but Chevron
refused to show up, though they had
indicated a willingness to participate.
However, the representatives of the
communities, NGOs, media and government
agencies that participated rejected the
project on the grounds that the people were
not consulted and an Environmental Impact
Assessment was not done. Furthermore, there
were concerns that the project would
exacerbate the devastation of fragile
mangroves and wetlands, and worsen
impoverishment as community people lose
their lands and means of livelihood. The
communities and groups also expressed a
fear that with the continuing
militarization of the Niger Delta area, a
project with the magnitude of the West
African gas pipeline would lead to more
killings as people might protest against
its negative aspects.
Concerns about the lack of commitment by
oil and gas companies to eliminate the
dangerous flaring of gas in the Niger Delta
area were also raised. The claim by Chevron
and partners that the West African Gas
Pipeline would lead to a substantial
reduction in gas flaring is not convincing,
as the company cannot say clearly how it
intends to gather and pipe associated gas,
the "by-product" of crude oil drilling as
performed in the Niger Delta. This is
different from "non-associated" natural gas
which oil and gas companies also drill
separately from crude oil.
Chevron's Escravos gas gathering
facility, which was built in the 1980s and
to which the West African Gas Pipeline will
be linked, processes non-associated natural
gas. The implication is that the gas to be
piped from Escravos at the onset of the
WAGP in the Western Niger Delta to private
power plants in Ghana and the other
countries will be mostly unflared
non-associated natural gas. This means
that, contrary to the claims of Chevron and
partners, the flaring of associated gas in
the Niger Delta will not be fundamentally
reduced with the West African Gas Project
as presently conceived.
Chevron's Chris Miller, Project Manager
of the Pipeline, blames the use of unflared
non-associated gas versus flared associated
gas on the Nigerian government, whose
National Electric Power Authority consumes
non-associated gas from Escravos. But we
know from the arguments of the oil and gas
industry that companies prefer to sell
non-associated gas to consumers, as it is
cheaper to drill and manage than associated
gas. Oil and gas companies have blackmailed
the Nigerian government to cancel or weaken
regulations on gas flaring, preferring the
cheap option of paying paltry fines for the
over 600 billion cubic feet of associated
gas flared yearly from the oil and gas
fields of the Niger Delta area into the
atmosphere.
But while flaring of gas may be a cheap
option for oil and gas companies, the cost
borne by the local people and the
environment cannot be measured in monetary
terms. Apart from acid rain, noise and soot
pollution and the resultant health risks to
the people on the oil and gas fields, the
entire planet is affected, as gas flaring
from the area accounts for a significant
amount of the carbon dioxide and methane
emissions that contribute to global
warming. Despite the pain and suffering
that it causes to people, flaring of gas
will only be minimized if companies see
some extra profit in doing so.
Chevron at the Carbon Casino
And for Chevron, one way to make profit is
to enter the emerging emissions trading
market. Even without a clear programme for
gas flare reduction, Chevron is already
seeking "carbon credits" under the Kyoto
Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM, see LINK 95). According to the
company, about 100 million tonnes of CO2
emissions reduction will be recorded with
the West African Gas Pipeline in a twenty
year period - a figure that even Pipeline
Project Manager Chris Miller agreed in a
chance discussion with activists in
Amsterdam a few days to prior to the
November 2000 Climate Summit to be very
theoretical.
Chevron's argument that it deserves
"carbon credits" under the CDM defeats its
recent attempt to present the West African
Gas Pipeline as an indigenous West African
initiative. The current scheme is to
showcase West African faces as part of the
consortium’s External Affairs team. Under
this arrangement, Esther Cobbah of the
Ghana National Petroleum Corporation is
head of the team.
Belated Consultation
Although none of these companies will be
involved in the practicalities of building
or managing the project (and as such their
representatives are not in a position to
answer questions or address concrete
problems that may arise in the process of
project development), they are the people
who are now representing the consortium in
the belated consultation process that the
External Affairs team now intends to
organize for communities and other "key
stakeholders" - a process in which people
will be told stories about decisions that
have already been made. Consultation
indeed!
The Nigerian President considers any
genuine attempt to address community
concerns that the project will affect their
environment and livelihoods as "unnecessary
distractions" since the prospect of profit
from gas sales overrides the reality of
mass impoverishment caused by the oil and
gas industry. The impatience of General
Obasanjo for what his government considers
as delay may not be unconnected with the
hidden hands of the World Bank in pushing
the WAGP. It is very clear that the
Obasanjo regime formulates its priorities
according to the dictates of the World Bank
and the IMF. The main concern of these
imperialist financial institutions is that
they continue to receive debt servicing.
Thus, our governments are blackmailed to
intensify mining activities, which yield
quicker revenue.
The Ghanese government, burdened with
the task of debt servicing, has opened up
the country’s mining sector. The resulting
expansion of gold mining has meant an
increased demand for energy, and hence the
immediate need for the West African Gas
Pipeline to fuel the power plants that will
service the gold mines.
Alive to its liquidator role, the World
Bank is very busy developing a fiscal
regime for the project and ignoring the
environmental and social concerns.
Community groups in Nigeria, supported by
organizations from around the world, have
sent a petition to the Bank demanding that
critical issues be addressed. But the Bank
has thus far remained mum.
Isaac Osuoka,
FoE Nigeria
SPOILING THE DREAM
In December, FoE Nigeria released an
information booklet that unravels hitherto
hidden facts about the environmental
hazards that could result from the proposed
WAGP. "Pipeline: The West African Gas
Pipeline Project and the Environment"
provides information and tools for
organizations and individuals around the
world working against the WAGP, and
challenges the picture put out by Chevron
and its partners.
Contact: FoE Nigeria,
eraction@infoweb.abs.net.
