 "OIL WILL FLOW FREELY"
In 1998, the progressive exhaustion of the existing oil reservoirs pushed Cameroon to set up a new legislation and to multiply inciting measurements in favor of oil research and exploitation by foreign companies. To counter the effects of a production decrease from about 200 000 barrels per day in the eighties to 110 000 barrels per day in 1998 in spite of the good production of the oil-bearing field of Ebomé, the taxation system relating to the exploitation of the marginal hydrocarbon layers knew a relaxation allowing thereby the discovery of new offshore oil layers and the attribution of licenses for offshore research and exploitation to the companies Philips Petroleum Cameroon, Elf Serepca and Kelt. In addition, following the removal of the Sonara refinery monopoly, imports and refined petroleum product prices were liberalized.
Within the same context, in October 2000 the country launched an ambitious project: the construction of a 1070 km pipeline between Chad and Cameroon – of which 880 km are in Cameroon. The pipeline will have a diameter of 76 cm and an evacuation capacity of 250 000 barrels per day.
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The project brought about the creation of 3500 direct jobs as well as the participation of local companies. One of these companies is UIC (Industrial Union of Cameroon) which was integrated to the group Bouygues Offshore in 1984 and has become a dominating actor in the oil-derived product sector in Cameroon. " Piping, sheet-metal working and welding on the pipeline will replace the construction of traditional oil platforms which we used to carry out in the past ", states Patrick Mizen, General manager of UIC. This project allowing the transport of oil from the deposits of Doba Chad towards the Atlantic coast, is financed by the World Bank and the Exxon Mobil-Petronas-Chevron consortium with 3.7 billion USD and will provide Cameroon up to 500 million USD of tax incomes drawn from the right-of-way over 25 years. Mr. Yves Mbele Ndoe, Minister for Mines, Water Resources and Energy still shows more ambition: " In the long run, we imagine this pipeline to be the key of a wider, sub-regional network committing neighboring countries ". |
