Dossier du pétrole:
De la toxicité
à la pollution, cas de Moanda
Dans un
message de l'agence Pana, on pouvait lire ce 22/03/2002 : "Des tonnes de
gaz toxiques provenant de l'exploitation pétrolière off shore
exposent la population de la ville côtière de Muanda, dans
la province du Bas-Congo (Ouest de la RD Congo), à toutes sortes
de maladies, indique un mémorandum adressé au ministère
congolais des Mines et des Hydrocarbures, par la population de cette localité.
Voici la réaction de notre ami Lubanzadio
Mavatikua, géophysicien
et spécialiste de "Ulta deep offshore exploration".
Chers amis, j'ai décidé
de vous présenter mon propos dans un texte structuré. Merci
d'avance.
A. INTRODUCTION:
A.1. DOSSIER
SECRET OU DOSSIER POLITIQUE?
- Je m'en veux réagir ou
dire un mot sur le dossier de gas toxique de Moanda qu'on croit secret
ou très grave, comme paru sur notre web.
- Car il est temps que ceux qui sont
intéressés à la politique - comme le relève
la majorité de textes et messages postés sur notre web- soient
imprégnés de quelques notions de l'inter-relation entre la
macro-économie, l'industrie et le capitalisme que la politique d'un
pays ou d'une région se doit gérer dans le souci de faire
bénéficier à leurs populations et communautés
les profits des activités économiques/industrielles qui se
déroulent sur leur sol.
- Je ne suis pas contre la politique
ou ceux qui s'y intéressent. Je ne ferai appel qu'au Prof. Vunduawe
Te Pemako (alors Comissaire d'état à l'Administration du
Territoire, après avoir été Vice-Recteur d'Université),
qui - dans la salle des promotions de l'UNIKIN- s'adressant aux étudiants
grévistes (1979-80) dit: "Allez dire à
ceux qui sont restés au home que : la politique est le problème
de tout le monde et les problèmes de tout le monde sont des problèmes
politiques."
A.2. VOTRE
INDULGENCE:
- Je demanderais votre indulgence
à accepter que ce texte vous parvienne en anglais, simplement parce
que le monde du pétrole est un monde anglo-saxon et la terminologie
oblige.
B. GAS FLARE:
IS IT A COMMON OR AVOIDABLE SCENARIO?
Dear brothers and sisters,
B.1. PANIC OR NON-AWARENESS? THE
OIL & GAS INDUSTRY AS SUCH
-
I understand your panic over the report
of what is called toxic gas in the region of Moanda. Yes, this is what
we call in the profession "FLARING GAS or GAS FLARE", which is a global
issue.
-
On the other hand, it is surprising
that the government (The ministry of mining and petroleum) of the DRC has
to await a formal related complain from the local population to start addressing
or debating over the issue. I still grant the incumbent government the
benefit of doubt as one can remember from our home economic geography lessons
(prior to the Baccalaureat/Diplome d'Etat) that crude oil production in
the river Congo shores (then Zaire) has never been part of the DRC official
annual economic reports prior to 1997. Though Petro-Zaire, Petro-Congo
today has been there in parternarship with Zaire-Gulf and Chevron then.
-
Beware. There will be more gas flaring
in DRC in a near future provided long lasting peace and stabilty come to
prevail over the recent years of turmoil. The country has large reserves
close to billion of baril/cubic feet of hydrocarbons onshore and offshore
as well, to be explored and exploited.
B.2.
THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY WORLD:
Before proceeding, I would like
to draw your attention on and make you consider the following:
* No oil production without gas
flare. This just means that each barril of oil produced entails some cubic
feet of flaring gas.
* Oil and gas firms are business
operating and minded companies. Thus, they are more likely to be first
interested in making huge profits than their host communities situations
in relation with their activities.
* Though nowadays, the five major
Oil & gas producing companies of the world (Mobil-Exxon, Chevron-Texaco,
The Royal Dutch Shell, BP-Amoco, Elf-Total-Fina)
-
have set what is called "the Social
Impact Assessment" to measure how any company's activities impact on the
of the governement receiving royalties from the production to assure that
the revenues are equitably shared in the life of the communities.
-
are striving to use the state-of-art
technology, which is environment friendly, the Environment Assessment Impact
is the host country Environmental Agency Business. And the later has to
set the reglementations and make the production operators or joint-ventures
comply with them. This is not so difficult as most of the E&P (exploration
& production) business are/should be joint-ventures with the state
own oil company.
* Any oil & gas operating/producing
company abides by the host government regulations, as far as environmental
issues are concerned.
C. AN EASY
AND THE UNIQUE SOLUTION FOR THE BAS-CONGO, LET US SAY THE DRC:
-
There is no oil production without gas
flaring, as stated earlier. The UNIQUE solution is an economic and industrial
one; what is called Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant to transform the
flared gas into this new form of consumable energy.
-
An LNG plant is a huge infrastructure
(twice larger than the traditional refinery like SOCIR). It requires billions
of dollars of investment and will provide thousands of direct and related
jobs in the region.
-
The oil companies have the monies and
are ready to invest on such projects.
-
Nigeria has already got one, fully in
operation since 1999. News from Angola last week (Luanda, 26/03/02) announce
that Sonangol -the Angolan state own oil company- has signed a deal for
the construction of an LNG plant which will be producing 4 million tonnes
of LNG at its initial stage. The major partenar in the project is Chevron-Texaco,
with Elf-Total-Fina, Norsk, BP Angola and Esso Angola Gas in joint-venture.
D. THE
CHALLENGE:
-
Is the DRC (Democratic Republic of the
Congo) government ready or capable of emulating the Nigerian and Angolan
example? I.e. attract national and foreign capitals into an LNG project,
ensure security, provide a decent macro-economic environment,...
-
No excuses
from Petro-Congo nor the DRC government:
Inga
Dam is large enough to provide the "mega-electricity" needed.
The Banana
deep water port has already been designed since.
"DRC has been
invaded and is under war", it will be said. So what? Angola has been under
war for more than two decades but...!
It might seem
that two NLG plants in the region is not economical. (I am not a economist,
but there is still a way out: aregional deal)
-
The Regional
deal. In the same vein, if the neighbouring countries to
the DRC did not build larger hydro-electric dams but resolved to tap their
electricity from DRC Dams (Inga Dam for Angola and Congo Brazzaville; Mobayi-Mbongo
Dam for Central Africa Republic), the DRC has the option to enter into
deal with Sonangol so as the Angolan LNG plant will be processing the gas
flare from the Congo river shores oil production.
-
The above also applies to the government
of Congo-Brazzaville for the Nkossa field and the all Congo Basin offshore
production. And the Kongo nation is free from those truly toxic gas.
E. PROSPECTS:
-
Immediate:
I don't mind
the war lords of the two Congos and Angola who might not been aware of
how easy it is to resolve the gas flare issue.
To the "Sun
Citeurs" [of Members participating in the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Sun
City, South Africa] and to the Unita and Angolan government peace brokers
at the Angolan inland of Luena-Moxico: be courageous enough, as we hope
that the turmoil in the region is over after all your talks (March-April,
2002).
Thus, time
has come for peace in the region. And with peace should arise a new era
of clean and toxic gas free zone, along with a petroleum boom in the Congo
river shores and the Kwanza basin.
-
As in a near future:
a lot of jobs in prospects.
The DRC governement
should think of setting up a National Environment Protection Agency to
deal with all environmental disastrous issues and challenge the industry
activities in the country.
The tons of
toxic gas from the Congo & Kwanza Basins oil production fields will
be providing thousands of jobs in the region. Thanks to Sonangol (Sociedad
Nacional de combustives de Angola) and her joint-venture partenars for
the LNG plant project deal.
Some
related internet link: meet with the the oil & gas world
Oil and Gas Journal:
http://ogj.pennnet.com/
Nigerian NLG:
http://www.nigerianoil-gas.com/naturalgas/liquefied_natural_gas_project.htm,
http://www.nigerianoil-gas.com/industryprofile/index.htm
AAPG:
http://www.aapg.org/
BP-Amoco, A World leader in Social
Impact:
http://www.bp-amoco.co.uk/index.asp
- Moanda
and the entire region has right to a clean and safe environment: the region
countries leaders have to make the move...
Lubanzadio-Mavatikua
Durhan,
United Kingdom
April
2002
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