Year of Publication
2006
NGO associated?
✖
Source URL
www.ecosonline.org
Summary
1. This report documents the impact of oil exploitation in the Melut Basin in Upper Nile State, Sudan, as told by inhabitants of the area and photographed from satellites. It focuses on the Melut and Maban Counties, Renk District, which fall into concession blocks 3 and 7, held by the Petrodar Operating Company Ltd. under a Production Sharing Agreement with the Sudanese Government.
2. Oil-rich areas in the Melut Basin have suffered the same pattern of oil-related death, destruction and displacement as the Muglad Basin fields in Western Upper Nile, though on a smaller scale. Well over a hundred villages have been emptied and the natural environment has been severely damaged, and the population has not received substantial benefits.
3. The oil fields have been developed against the background of a war in which the Petrodar Operating Company Ltd has not acted as a neutral party but as a loyal partner of one of the warring sides, the Government of Sudan. The Petrodar consortium has shown no due regard for the natural environment or concern for the rights of the population. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has not brought publicly visible fundamental changes in its attitude or business practices.
4. Oil exploitation has coincided with a decline in the rural population in parts of Melut and Maban Counties. This is mostly due to forced displacement of the Dinka and Maban populations, and partially to the effects of cheap and environmentally harmful engineering. The total number of people that has been forcibly displaced can be safely estimated at well above 15.000 minimum; the true number could easily be double that figure. Several hundreds of people have reportedly been killed.
5. Recently, a limited number of displaced people have begun to return, some of them to find that their land has disappeared. Many of the sandy ridges where Dinka build their settlements have been excavated and used for road construction. There is widespread resentment because of the loss of livelihood, but even more because the graves of the ancestors, who are buried in the villages, have been desecrated. Their remains are now scattered in the oil roads.
6. Crop patterns in Melut County have changed dramatically between November 1999 and 2005. This is consistent with the displacement pattern as described by our respondents and can be attributed mostly to displacement, partly to hydrological alterations as a result of cheap and inconsiderate engineering.
7. The hundreds of kilometres of all-weather roads that have been constructed have hugely improved the trade of goods and access to markets, which is key to economic growth. On the other hand, they have hurt agricultural production and have partially dammed seasonal tributaries to the Nile, including the Khor Adar.
8. It is urgent to appraise the environmental risks and to determine the full environmental impact of Petrodar’s operations, which cuts right through the world-famous Machar Marches wetland and borders the White Nile. Pollution of the Nile may have major consequences for both Sudan and Egypt.
9. Despite the fact that oil production in Melut County currently generates well over $ 10 million a day, the region remains extremely poor with negligible service levels, whether in education, health, sanitation, drinking water, or other. The meagre and contractually obligatory Community Development activities by Petrodar have served to reward militias with highly abusive records and to perpetuate forced displacement. Their benefits have gone largely unnoticed by the population.
10. Fellata agro-pastoralists are settling north of Paloic, raising fears for future tension and conflict.
11. The oil industry in northern Upper Nile has no social support base, which is a negative indicator for the reliability of this crucial source of State revenues. The CPA contains a range of principles and measures that offer a coherent framework for popular trust- building, but they have remained a dead letter. While the security situation in the Melut Basin oil fields has improved since January 2005, there is no process in place that could lead to just compensation and redress for the people who have suffered for the exploitation of oil.
12. The key issue now for the competent authorities and Petrodar is to set and implement standards and practices that protect the rights of people and their natural environment, and to repair the damage done.
13. This report is not an unfriendly act towards Petrodar. On the contrary, it is an invitation to the consortium to get to know the people of northern Upper Nile, acknowledge their rights and interests, and build a solid and harmonious basis for the continuation of its work, in the spirit of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
2. Oil-rich areas in the Melut Basin have suffered the same pattern of oil-related death, destruction and displacement as the Muglad Basin fields in Western Upper Nile, though on a smaller scale. Well over a hundred villages have been emptied and the natural environment has been severely damaged, and the population has not received substantial benefits.
3. The oil fields have been developed against the background of a war in which the Petrodar Operating Company Ltd has not acted as a neutral party but as a loyal partner of one of the warring sides, the Government of Sudan. The Petrodar consortium has shown no due regard for the natural environment or concern for the rights of the population. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has not brought publicly visible fundamental changes in its attitude or business practices.
4. Oil exploitation has coincided with a decline in the rural population in parts of Melut and Maban Counties. This is mostly due to forced displacement of the Dinka and Maban populations, and partially to the effects of cheap and environmentally harmful engineering. The total number of people that has been forcibly displaced can be safely estimated at well above 15.000 minimum; the true number could easily be double that figure. Several hundreds of people have reportedly been killed.
5. Recently, a limited number of displaced people have begun to return, some of them to find that their land has disappeared. Many of the sandy ridges where Dinka build their settlements have been excavated and used for road construction. There is widespread resentment because of the loss of livelihood, but even more because the graves of the ancestors, who are buried in the villages, have been desecrated. Their remains are now scattered in the oil roads.
6. Crop patterns in Melut County have changed dramatically between November 1999 and 2005. This is consistent with the displacement pattern as described by our respondents and can be attributed mostly to displacement, partly to hydrological alterations as a result of cheap and inconsiderate engineering.
7. The hundreds of kilometres of all-weather roads that have been constructed have hugely improved the trade of goods and access to markets, which is key to economic growth. On the other hand, they have hurt agricultural production and have partially dammed seasonal tributaries to the Nile, including the Khor Adar.
8. It is urgent to appraise the environmental risks and to determine the full environmental impact of Petrodar’s operations, which cuts right through the world-famous Machar Marches wetland and borders the White Nile. Pollution of the Nile may have major consequences for both Sudan and Egypt.
9. Despite the fact that oil production in Melut County currently generates well over $ 10 million a day, the region remains extremely poor with negligible service levels, whether in education, health, sanitation, drinking water, or other. The meagre and contractually obligatory Community Development activities by Petrodar have served to reward militias with highly abusive records and to perpetuate forced displacement. Their benefits have gone largely unnoticed by the population.
10. Fellata agro-pastoralists are settling north of Paloic, raising fears for future tension and conflict.
11. The oil industry in northern Upper Nile has no social support base, which is a negative indicator for the reliability of this crucial source of State revenues. The CPA contains a range of principles and measures that offer a coherent framework for popular trust- building, but they have remained a dead letter. While the security situation in the Melut Basin oil fields has improved since January 2005, there is no process in place that could lead to just compensation and redress for the people who have suffered for the exploitation of oil.
12. The key issue now for the competent authorities and Petrodar is to set and implement standards and practices that protect the rights of people and their natural environment, and to repair the damage done.
13. This report is not an unfriendly act towards Petrodar. On the contrary, it is an invitation to the consortium to get to know the people of northern Upper Nile, acknowledge their rights and interests, and build a solid and harmonious basis for the continuation of its work, in the spirit of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement.