Wikidrain - telling YOU what THEY don't want you to know!
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A Cromwell employee, outraged by her employer's secrecy about its impact assessment study for oil development in Discordia, has made the document below available to Wikidrain. It's revealing!
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Executive Summary of Impact Assessment produced for Cromwell Oil in December 2007
Odiham Associates Ltd.
Dedicated to excellence in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment since 1993
Preliminary Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
Block 77 Development, Central Discordia
Executive Summary
• The very significant revenues the project will generate could be a source of internal conflict and dissension in Discordia if not well employed. Used well however, they could stimulate trade and commerce in the non-oil sector and could allow major upgrades of education, health-care and infrastructure. The main features of any responsible scheme for revenue utilisation should be:
(a) Transparent and externally auditable public reporting of all revenues;
(b) Agreement at Government level of the division of revenues between National, State and Local Governments, including special provision for the oil producing areas;
(c) Clear commitments as to what percentages of the revenues would be spent on education, health and stimulation of industry and agriculture.;
(d) The “Oil Fund” set up in Norway is a good example of how a country could manage its revenues for long term good.
• Cromwell Oil obviously cannot dictate to the Discordian Government how to use its revenues, but some independent third-party, typically governmental or super-governmental, might usefully be involved by Cromwell in dialogue with the Discordian Government on this topic.
• Many of the skills needed for development of an oil industry are already present in Discordia, though not in the remote Block 77 area. Early action is needed to firm up requirements and to develop a plan for recruitment and training to maximise opportunities in this sector. There are also significant numbers of Discordians living overseas who have relevant skills – every effort should be made by Cromwell Oil to devise packages which would entice them to return.
• Subject to further detailed assessment (see below) there are unlikely to be significant resettlement concerns associated with the development. Block 77 is in a sparsely populated area and deviated drilling from well clusters can minimise the ground-usage required and ensure that villagers are not disturbed. (Note however that the issue of encroachment post-construction does however have to be anticipated). All of the pipeline routes considered do however come close to settlements and care must be taken in detailed planning to avoid them.
• It should be noted that the Block 77 area is commercially and industrially undeveloped. There is only a very limited cash-economy and people are not used to dealing with ready money. Cash compensation for any reason, though well meant, may have unintended consequences in terms of social destabilisation (including local inflation, boom-town effects etc.) and may indeed trigger inter-communal tensions. The protests of villagers who were not affected in the recent waste-pit spill incident, but who demanded to be compensated anyway, is an example of the type of concerns that will need very careful management in the coming period. Where possible compensation and community involvement should be in-kind, or via community-development projects which genuinely reflect local needs, identified in close consultation with the local people themselves. Cromwell Oil is strongly recommended to investigate how third-party experts in this field (e.g. development agencies or NGOs) can assist them to do this.
• Note that though HIV/AIDS is a major concern in other parts of Discordia the incidence in the Block 77 area is still very low. Cromwell Oil needs to identify a strategy as soon as possible to ensure that its operations are planned and executed to ensure this persists. It may be possible to draw on the experience of DiscoCrom, which embarked in 2005 upon a proactive campaign of HIV/AIDS awareness advertising, concentrated on its petrol stations.
• There are significant but not necessarily insuperable ecological and bio-diversity concerns associated with the Endor Valley pipeline route. The rare Dwarf Rhino has its last habitat in this area and is possibly being kept from total extinction by the fact that the roads into the area are in a very poor state of repair since the Civil War, thus limiting access for poachers. There are indications that the army is actively engaged in hunting of these animals for their horns, which command a high price in certain overseas markets, as well as in illegal logging in the southern parts of the valley, particularly of the rare and valuable Robur Oak timber reserves which are concentrated there. (These facts have led “The Global Nature Institute” in the USA to designate the Endor Valley one of its “200 Most Endangered Eco-Regions”). Were Cromwell to pursue this route for the pipeline it would need to agree enforceable protection measures for the Dwarf Rhinos with the Government. One solution could be to agree that all road upgrades and access created for pipeline construction purposes would be temporary and demolished after the pipeline is commissioned, so that the area remains inaccessible.
• The pipeline route running westwards towards Mindo, through the savannah north of the Ignosi Highlands and Emtwala mountains, is the easiest in terms of social and ecological impact. The area is relatively sparsely populated, so that settlements can be easily avoided and there are no threatened species or fragile habitats along the route.
• Agitation is currently developing internationally to declare large areas of the Emtwala Mountains and Ignosi Highlands protected areas in view of the presence of endangered species. This demand has many eminent supporters and is likely to grow in the future.
• Should the development of Block 77 proceed on the basis of flaring of all excess associated-gas, then it will detract significantly from the overall environmental friendliness of the project. Though the contribution to Global Carbon Dioxide (CO2) levels would be small in absolute terms, it would be very considerable in relative terms for Discordia, which, not being industrialised, has low emissions at present. Given that Cromwell elsewhere has made strenuous efforts to reduce CO2 emissions in its operations, implementation of flaring in Discordia would be a highly retrograde step. It therefore essential to continue evaluating schemes for managing excess gas.
• Odiham Associates recommend that Cromwell Oil establish an early relationship with some independent third-party entity with expertise in tropical ecology and biodiversity which can act as a sounding board and critic for Cromwell thinking on this topic. A similar alliance with an entity with expertise in social and economic development would be appropriate.
• Thought should be given as to with whom this Impact Assessment should be shared, and how much there is to be gained from transparency as to its findings.
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