Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
Reports emerging from the Ugandan capital, Kampala says that wildlife and conservation group in the United Kingdom as well as the United Nations are seeking to block plans by UK listed oil companies to drill oil in the world famous Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The two oil firms listed by the Financial Times Stock Exchange, Soco International and AIM listed Dominion Petroleum, were granted block 5 of Congo’s Eastern Albertine Graben last year.
The DRC shared the Abertine Graben with Uganda’s oil rich Western region. The two countries jointly owned Lake Albert on 60 -40 per cent basis, though more oil fields have been discovered on the Ugandan side of the border inside Lake Albert.
Part of the block 5 is based inside Africa’s oldest national wild game park, a world heritage site famous for its endangered Mountain Gorillas.
But the two companies say the gorillas are not present in their block and further insisted that the animals are right inside the Mountain Park and face no threat from human contact.
DRC law forbids oil exploration and production within the national game park, although Endando , the DRC Environment Minister was recently quoted by a British Newspaper, the FINANCIAL TIMES that Congolese government was in the process of considering a request from 42 local MPs to redraw the boundaries of the park to enable the “rapid start” of oil exploration” at the heart” of the block 5.
DRC produces 28,000 barrels of oil a day from its western shorelines, but discovery of large quantity in neighboring Uganda by Tullow Oil has encouraged oil companies to look for oil elsewhere in East African region.
However, UNESCO says in its parts that oil activities are “inappropriate” and” not compatible with world heritage status.
Conservation group WWF adds that Soco is acting with “total disregard” and calls the plan “pernicious,” claims denied by the company who according to FINANCIAL TIMES, have received death threats over the issue.
At one time, DRC and Ugandan forces exchanged fire over one disputed oil rich Island located inside Lake Albert, which is said to be located right inside the Ugandan side of the Lake Albert and the situation threaten to ignite and developed in to a full scale conventional war. A British oil worker and several Ugandan colleagues died in the brief skirmishes, but the incident was resolved amicably through intensive diplomatic engagement between the two countries.
Meanwhile an Irish Oil giant involved in exploration activities in Western Uganda has disclosed that the final approval by the Ugandan government for a key USD 10 billion project should come shortly, although Tullow, however, gave no specific date and its profits missed forecast.
Tullow has been waiting since last year for the formal approval from the Ugandan government to bring in new partners, French Total Group and Chinese CNOOC to start a major development in Uganda.
‘We’re at the stage where all the points have been agreed so we are just finalizing the documentation,” the Reuter News Agency yesterday quoted the company’s CEO Aidan Heavy as saying this in the firm’s London head office.”It should be pretty quick.”There is bn9thing there to stop it going ahead now. We just have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.”
The same reports from London says shares in Tullow oil slid in the London Stock Market as much as 3 per cent before paring earlier losses to trade down on Wednesday morning this week. They also disappointed on their results as well as reported by the Royal Bank of Scotland’s analysts.
Tullow Oil has reported the full-year pretax profit stood at 36 per cent to USD 1.52 million in 2010, but the result fell short of consensus market forecasts and projection of USD 1.92 million according to the company supplied poll of around 20 analysts.
Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com