Cameroon: Pipeline to Prosperity?

Cameroon: Pipeline to Prosperity?
Genre : Political
Type : Documentary
Original title : What happened to the project promoters called a "cargo of hope" for Africans
Principal country concerned : Column : Cinema/tv
Year of production : 2010
Format : Short
Running time : 23 (in minutes)
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2010/06/ten-years-ago-this-month.html

A short piece for Frontline/World to mark the 10th anniversary of the World Bank's involvement in the Chad-Cameroon Oil Development and Pipeline Project. This short film revisits the story of the "model" oil for development project that promised to show the world how oil could be a force for good. It's online now and you can watch the piece (follows the link).

by Christiane Badgley

Please support my ongoing work on this project by visiting the Frontline/World website, viewing the film and leaving your feedback. It is crucial to show funders that this work matters, especially today in light of the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

June 7, 2010

This project was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, with additional support from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Ten years ago this month, the World Bank Group approved financing for the controversial Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project. Despite an international campaign to stop the project that brought together more than 80 environmental and human rights groups, the Board of Directors of the Bank voted unanimously to support it, arguing that oil development represented Chad's best - perhaps only - chance at escaping its crushing poverty. Both Chadians and Cameroonians would benefit from Chad's oil, the promoters promised, and the project would show the world that the resource curse could be lifted.

Map showing location of oil field and pipeline.


With World Bank participation secured, ExxonMobil, the project operator, and its consortium partners, Chevron and Petronas (Malaysia), undertook the $4.2 billion project. The consortium drilled hundreds of wells in the Doba basin area of southern Chad and constructed a 650-mile pipeline to carry the oil from land-locked Chad to an offshore loading terminal on the Atlantic coast of Cameroon.

Chad's oil began to flow in October 2003 amid great fanfare. The World Bank drew up an elaborate revenue management plan for Chad; expectations were high. ExxonMobil placed a full page ad (pdf) in the New York Times. "Voila," the ad proclaimed, "with the first oil loaded, an extraordinary project begins to supply energy to the world as well as a better life and a cargo of hope to the people of Chad and Cameroon."

That cargo of hope leaves Africa from Kribi, a small beach town and one of Cameroon's prime tourist attractions. Here, the dense equatorial rainforest stretches almost to the water's edge; a strip of golden sand beach is all that separates the greens of the forest from the turquoise waters. Just south of town the famous Lobe waterfalls tumble over black volcanic rocks directly into the ocean. Market women sell and prepare fish right off the boats at the town's small port.

Kribi is a small beach town and one of Cameroon's prime tourist attractions.


When I first visited Kribi 15 years ago, I was surprised to hear about plans to bring an oil pipeline from Chad to Kribi. This wasn't like bringing a pipeline to the port of Los Angeles. The port of Kribi was filled with pirogues, not tankers. There wasn't even an industrial zone in the area; Kribi was surrounded by forest.

In 2007 I returned to Kribi. The tourist trade had grown; there were new bars and hotels around Kribi. But the town seemed as poor as ever. There were no signs of petroleum-related jobs and Kribi seemed untouched by any new oil wealth.

That trip prompted me to look further at the Chad-Cameroon pipeline. The project, which received a fair amount of press coverage during its construction phase, has since dropped from the radar. Two years later, I traveled once again to Cameroon, this time to learn what has become of the "model" project. In future reports, I plan to follow stories along on the pipeline from Kribi to the Doba fields of Chad. In this first piece, I report from the marine terminal to the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé.

Read Christiane Badgley's blog for additional reporting, photos and related links on this project: http://pipelinedreams.wordpress.com/

Learn more about the project at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting website: http://pulitzercenter.org/video/cameroon-pipeline-prosperity

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