World

Congo to Auction Off Oil and Gas Blocks In a Step Back for Climate Change


DAKAR, Senegal – The Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to one of the largest old-growth rainforests on earth, is auctioning off large amounts of land in a bid to promote it as a “new destination for oil investments” mining”, part of a global shift as the world retreats in the fight against climate change in the scramble for fossil fuels.

The oil and gas blocks, to be auctioned at the end of July, extend to Virunga National Park, the world’s most important gorilla sanctuary, as well as tropical peatland that store a large amount of carbonprevent it from leaving the atmosphere and not contribute to global warming.

Irene Wabiwa, who oversees the Greenpeace campaign in Kinshasa, said: “If oil extraction takes place in these areas, we have to expect a global climate disaster, and we will all be left with nothing but a global climate disaster. helpless view”.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent oil prices soaring and led to US and UK bans on Russian energy and last week’s call for the distribution of natural gas in Europe.

At the same time, Norway, a leading advocate of saving forests, is increasing oil production with plans to drill more offshore. And President Biden, who pledged early in his term to wean the world off fossil fuels, visited Saudi Arabia recently, where he raised the need to produce more oil. Back home, Mr. Biden’s ambitious domestic climate agenda has largely been destroyed.

Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, the nation’s top representative on climate issues and an adviser to the Minister for Climate Affairs, said Congo took note of each of these global events.

Congo’s only goal for the auction, he said, is to generate enough revenue to help struggling countries fund poverty reduction programs and generate much-needed economic growth.

“That is our priority,” Mr. Mpanu said in an interview last week. “Our priority is not saving the planet.”

Congo announced the auction in May, with a video is posted on Twitter showed a sparkling river hidden in a deep layer of lush rainforest. The video cuts quickly close-up of a gas pump station, where yellow gas sprays into the car’s tank. American and French oil giants Chevron and TotalEnergies were tagged in the post.

Environmental groups were outraged. Last week, Congolese officials doubled down, expanding the number of lots – large parcels of land – to take, from 16 to 30, including 27 oil lots and three gas packs. TotalEnergies said it had no intention of bidding and Chevron did not respond to a request for comment. Other major oil producers also declined to comment.

The auction highlights a double standard held by many political leaders across the African continent: How Western countries, which have built their prosperity on fossil fuels, emit smoke. poison, heat the planet, demand that Africa give up its coal, oil and gas reserves to protect everyone else?

“Perhaps the time has come for us to level the playing field and be compensated,” Mr. Mpanu said.

Many Congolese officials believe that after decades of colonization and political mismanagement, the needs of their country should take precedence over the needs of the world.

For President Tshisekedi, seeing his country as a bulwark against global warming has met with a political reality. The country’s next presidential election is 18 months away, but the jostling has already begun as Mr Tshisekedi runs for another term. In 2018, he was declared the winner in a bitter election. He severed a deal with his predecessor, the unpopular but still powerful Joseph Kabila, whom Western officials consider corrupt. The pair’s deal fell apart in 2020, but some analysts warn that Mr Kabila or his friends could end up voting at a time when foreign investment is pouring into the country.

How much compensation to the Congo will not be known until seismic surveys are carried out – a very destructive process in itself, according to scientists.

In May, Didier Budimbu, Congo’s minister in charge of hydrocarbons, said the country, which currently produces about 25,000 barrels of oil per day, which has the potential to produce up to 1 million barrels. At current prices, the equivalent of $32 billion a year, more than half of Congo’s GDP.

Mr. Mpanu pointed to the Amazon as an example of how countries with natural resources must act if richer nations do not compensate them.

In 2007, Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president at the time, established a trust fund that the international community could fund to prevent the country from exploiting an oil block in Yasuní National Park, one of the areas. most biologically diverse in the world. The goal is to raise about $3.6 billion. Years later, it only raised $13 million. So, in 2013, the government decided to allow oil and gas exploration. Drilling began three years later.

“We are not in a position of intimidation, rejecting the notion that the Congolese auction is merely an attempt to frighten countries into providing more financial support,” Mr. Mpanu said. “We have a very humble attitude. We have the sovereign right to go ahead. “

But scientists say going ahead can destroy tropical forests and precious peatlandsprovides one of the last lines of defense for a planet struggling to limit rising temperatures.

Seismic surveys to identify oil fields would entail long trails cut through the rainforest and blasts set in motion. Waste from oil production, containing salts and heavy metals, can upset the salt balance of the entire Congo Basin ecosystem, like in the Amazon. The construction of roads, necessary for the oil industry, would open vast, sparsely populated tropical forests to human habitation, leads to increased logging.

Peat experts say it also has the potential to dehydrate and dehydrate peatlands, eventually leading to their decomposition and the release of the carbon they trapped.

Susan Page, professor of physical geography at the University of Leicester, UK, said that if this were to happen, the huge amounts of carbon released very quickly “could be a kind of tipping point, effectively, for the global climate”.

Mr. Mpanu asserts that drilling can be “surgical” and companies may find ways to drill diagonally to avoid touching the peat. He stressed that any action would be in line with global climate commitments and would be done after extensive environmental impact assessments and studies of how local people would be affected.

A Greenpeace group recently consulted with people living inside the proposed oil blocks and said residents oppose the drilling and will launch protests, according to Ms. Wabiwa.

Instead of eradicating poverty, selling oil blocks would make a lot of money for a few people, she said.

Budimbu, Congo’s hydrocarbon minister, consulted with some of Africa’s biggest oil producers, such as Angola, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, “so that the DRC can follow the same path,” according to the report. a recent release on the Ministry’s website.

But if Congo follows in their footsteps, it could mean a fate some call the “resources curse,” in which people don’t benefit from their country’s natural wealth and prosperity. economic development is still lacking. In Nigeria, oil is the mainstay of the economy but its production also leads to overflowing destruction and increasing inequality. In Equatorial Guinea, the majority of the population lives below the poverty line and get no benefit from the country oil wealth.

Government officials said the decision to allow further exploration was well thought out, although it appeared to be the subject of some internal debate.

March, ve Bazaiba, Congo’s environment minister, told The New York Times that officials were considering continuing. “Should we protect peatland because it’s a carbon sink or should we dig for oil for our economy?” she speaks.

Last week, she expressed her willingness to decline the auction.

“If we had an alternative to oil extraction, we would keep them,” she speakstalk about peatlands.

But Mr Mpanu said Congo has already paid the climate fee. It allows mining of minerals and metals such as cobalt and lithium is the key to the renewable energy industry and it plans to develop hydroelectricity.

“We are part of the solution, but the solution also includes us taking advantage of our oil resources,” he said.

He said the country could find ways to protect other lands to make up for what it would lose by drilling in places like Virunga, and noted that it would be up to oil companies to decide if they would drill inside the boundary. park world or not.

“If we lost 10 hectares, now we can protect 20 hectares,” he said. “Certainly, it won’t have the same biodiversity and fauna, but the country has that right.”

When asked which oil and gas company, in an age of ever-higher consumer awareness, would consider drilling for oil in a protected gorilla habitat, Mr. Mpanu did not hesitate.

“What is it like,” he said. “We just have to see how people rate that resource.”

Dionne Searcey reports from New York; Manuela Andreoni contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.





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