© ALEXIS HUGUET / AFP
C’is a major turning point which should propel the DRC among the major oil and gas producers. Indeed, a call for tenders for twenty-seven oil permits and three gas blocks was launched on Thursday, July 28, by the authorities. “The launch of the bidding process demonstrates our willingness to put our resource potential at the service of our country,” President Felix Tshisekedi said at the inauguration, saying fossil fuel production would boost the development of the Central African giant, whose economy had hitherto been focused on the exploitation of mineral resources.
The timing of this transformation is far from trivial. Kinshasa hopes to take advantage of high oil prices and new Western interest in alternatives to Russian crude.
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Economic opportunity or ecological disaster?
But these prospects for economic growth are far from unanimous. Environmental defense organizations, including Greenpeace, are up once morest this project which they believe, that it would have catastrophic consequences on the communities bordering these oil blocksbiodiversity and the global climate because it notably affects a complex rich in peat bogs in the central Cuvette area.
Out of thirty-two blocks initially selected, tenders for the allocation of rights were launched on July 28 for twenty-seven oil blocks, including the two blocks returned by Israeli businessman Dan Gertler and three blocks gas companies, said Didier Budimbu, Congolese Minister of Hydrocarbons. The blocks concerned are distributed as follows over several corners of the country: three in the coastal basin, nine in the central Cuvette, eleven in the Tanganyika Graben and four in the Albertine Graben, he explained. The three gas blocks are located in Lake Kivu.
In February, the Congolese state reached an amicable agreement with the sulphurous businessman Dan Gertler who held rights to blocks 1 and 2 in the Albertine Graben for a value of 2 billion dollars. In April, the Congolese government lifted the option of auctioning oil blocks, including at least nine located in the sensitive Central Cuvette ecosystem.
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Combination of risks
For the environmental protection organization Greenpeace, oil blocks should not be attributed in the Central Cuvette, a complex rich in peatlands, in biodiversity which contains approximately 30 gigatonnes of carbon, the equivalent of three years of global CO emissions2. For the NGO, this government project would have catastrophic consequences on the communities bordering these oil blocks, biodiversity and the global climate. This is rejected by the Congolese Minister of the Environment Ève Bazaïba, who affirmed on Congolese public television that appropriate studies were being carried out allowing these attributions of exploration rights in the central Cuvette.
“I reassure our partners here of our determination to carry out mining and exploration work using the most modern technological means that protect the environment, fauna and flora and preserve ecosystems as well as ecological balances. “, Tried to reassure the Congolese President, Félix Tshisekedi, during this official ceremony.
The drilling and exploitation works will be subject to an environmental management plan in order to minimize the negative effects on the ecosystems, he insisted. According to Félix Tshisekedi, at each stage, environmental impact studies will be examined and approved by the Congolese Ministry of the Environment.
The Head of State hoped that “in a win-win partnership that respects environmental standards and the interests of local communities”, the DRC leaves the “all mining” in order to develop the oil and gas potential for the benefit of the population. .
For this reason, he invited Congolese investors “to forge strategic alliances” with companies that will acquire rights to these twenty-seven oil and three gas blocks. “Companies selected (following these calls for tenders) will be called upon to sign production sharing contracts with the DRC” and Congolese operators, in accordance with the Hydrocarbons Code in force in the country, indicated the Minister. of Congolese Hydrocarbons, Didier Budimbu. According to studies conducted by his ministry, the DRC? which barely produces 23,000 barrels of oil a day? has a potential of 22 billion barrels in all the segmental basins and 66 billion standard cubic meters of gas dissolved in the waters of Lake Kivu. President Tshisekedi wanted the exploitation of gas from this lake to be urgently assigned to “experienced operators”.
Tenders for oil blocks will be examined within six months, while for gas blocks, the deadline is three months. It remains to be seen whether investors will be there. Nothing is less certain. In addition to the environmental criteria, the insecurity, which reigns in several areas where blocks are proposed, and the lack of infrastructure, might discourage the international majors interested.
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