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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (911)	2/1/1999 6:14:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Sudan Keen To Avert Oil Industry Pollution February 1, 1999. By Yahya el Hassan KHARTOUM, Sudan (PANA) - The Sudanese government has set up a panel to examine possible environmental hazards that could result from the imminent commercial exploitation of the country's crude oil reserves. The panel's creation was apparently prompted by ceaseless warnings by environment protection activists who feared that the oil extraction process by foreign firms could cause environmental degradation in certain parts of the country. The construction of a 1,160 km pipeline capable of carrying 100,000 barrel of crude per day is underway from the oil fields in the South and West of the country to Port Sudan harbour on the Red Sea. At the same time a 50,000 barrel oil refinery is being built at el Jaili village, some 20 km north of Khartoum, the Capital. The facilities are being constructed by companies from China, Malaysia, Canada, Britain, Germany and Argentina, each doing a portion of the work within its specialisation. Informed sources in Khartoum said the pipeline and refinery will be completed by July this year The complaint of local ecologists is that each of the six contracted companies was working in complete isolation of the others. ''There should be coordination between these firms, otherwise the environment of the areas concerned will be affected,'' said Dr.Assim el Maghrabi, an outspoken activist of the Sudan Environment Protection Society. Maghrabi said a careful study of possible environmental damage as a result of this work should have been conducted in advance and the necessary precautions taken. ''The risk of pollution and environmental degradation as a result of the oil exploitation,transport, refining and use are of collosal proportions,'' Maghrabi told PANA in an interview. ''A good example of such mismanagement and enviromental degredation was that of Nigeria which prompted the poet (Ken) Sarowiwa to launch a campaign of protest two years ago that finally led to his execution,'' he recalled. The ecologist has criticized the processes the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) is following in the extraction of oil from the oil wells. ''They simply pump water in the oil well and pump out the mixture which is then transported a distance of 160 km to the oil collection terminal. The water is separated from the oil and pumped into evaporation ponds.This contaminated water will surely seep back into the underground waters of the rich Nubian Sandstone Basin below,'' he charged. He said the CNPC had completey ignored the warnings of the Environment Protection Society on the ecological hazards this process would certainly cause. He said the correct process is to apply air or gas pressure to force oil out of the ground as most companies in other parts of the world do. The ecologist also criticised local oil planners, saying they did not take into consideration that the pipeline would block scores of water streams and valleys, thus affecting livestock, agriculture and wildlife natural habitats and migration routes. On the other hand, he said, the refinery in Jaili, a stone's throw from the River Nile, may contaminate the river water if overspills occur. He feared that the possible uncontrolled dumping of oil waste at this close distance from the river would certainly pose a pollution threat. A Malaysian company has been assigned to supervise construction work on the oil facilities. But Maghrabi said the Malaysian firm was doing its work in the absence of local expertise, which casts doubts on the safety of the entire process. ''We have lots of qualified cadres who should not have been ignored while approaching such a vital project,'' Maghrabi said, adding that ''we should bear in mind the Sudanese scientists' noteworty contribution to the oil industry in the Persian Gulf states.'' Another ecologist, Dr.Mustafa Babiker, who has visited the oil fields in Hijlij area, complained that local people hired by the foreign firms as casual labourers '' are living in makeshift housing facilities which are uncomfortable and unhealthy.'' Babiker, a lecturer at the University of Khartoum's Institute of Environmental Studies, added that the employers had failed to adhere to the Sudanese labour laws and were denying the workers a lot of their basic rights in medical payment. In the wake of such complaints, the government panel has been a given a wider mandate beyond the issue of environmental effects of oil exploitation. According to its chairperson, Labour Minister Ignis Locodu: ''The panel will also consider the social and economic aspects of the emerging oil industry.'' Lucodu said her panel will seek the advice of specialists in wildlife, pastures and water. The minister is expected to report the panel's findings to the Council of Ministers soon for remedial action to be taken in due course.