The French oil giant Total SA chief executive, Mr Patrick Pouyanne, has acknowledged that the company’s oil projects in Uganda "represent significant social and environmental stakes" but said they are mindful of the fears and are "taking them into consideration."
Mr Pouyanne said they are mobilising substantial resources to ensure the oil projects are carried out in an exemplary manner and to create value for the people in both countries.
"In view of the questions raised by stakeholders, the commitment of Total is to answer to all questions and to ensure complete transparency on the studies conducted by Total and independent third parties and the actions taken as a result," Mr Pouyanne said in a statement from the company’s headquarters in Paris yesterday.
Total SA, the parent company of Total E&P, the lead developer of East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), made public the studies, including independent third-party reviews and social and environmental action plans of its Tilenga oil project in Nwoya and Buliisa districts.
"These projects are undertaken in a sensitive environmental context and require the implementation of land acquisition programmes with a specific attention to respecting the rights of the communities concerned," the company said in the statement.
"Several independent reviews have been conducted by third-party organisations to ensure that the projects are implemented in compliance with social and environmental best practices. These reviews also allow assessment of the effectiveness of the actions undertaken, to identify areas of improvement and have resulted in related action plans," the company added.
The statement came on the heels of a letter written by 260 civil society groups to the executives of Standard Bank–the parent company of Stanbic–the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation raising environmental concerns on the oil investments and urging the banks not to finance the proposed EACOP.
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The banks are the transactional advisers for Uganda, Tanzania, China’s Cnooc and Total E&P on the multi-billion dollar pipeline.
However, the CSOs also copied the letter to other financial institutions likely to pool money to the project, including Agricultural Bank of China, ANZ, Bank of America, Bank of China, BNP Paribas; Citi, Credit Agricole, China Construction Bank, China International Capital Company, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Mizuho, MUFG, OCBC, Royal Bank of Canada, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, Unicredit, UOB Group.
In their letter, the CSOs want the banks to publicly commit not to finance the EACOP project.They […]
