The Publish What You Pay (PWYP) coalition is concerned about the current stalemate between the Chadian government and the World Bank following the government’s amendment of Law 001 – the petroleum revenue management law

The Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (N’Djamena, Chad) and Environmental Defense (Washington, D.C.) welcomed the World Bank’s decision last Friday to suspend funding for Chad, but called attention to the urgent need to address problems of social disruption, public health and environmental damage resulting from the controversial Chad-Cameroon oil & pipeline project.

Washington, DC – The World Bank suspended all loans to Chad today because of the Chadian government’s intention to funnel oil revenues – meant for education and healthcare – to the military. Oxfam International regrets Chad’s decision to gut its innovative oil revenue law and urges the World Bank to learn from the lessons of this failed experiment.

The Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline forms part of a project to develop the oil fields discovered in the 1970s in Southern Chad, and transport the oil through the Cameroon to an offshore terminal off the Atlantic coast.

The oil fields are to be developed and operated by an oil consortium of ExxonMobil, Petronas and Chevron that obtained a 30-year concession from the Government of Chad.

There has been a growing recognition of the importance of transparency for economic growth and social development in oil producing countries. This paper analyzes transparency issues in Cameroon’s oil sector. It shows that, while substantial efforts have already been undertaken, continued action is necessary to strengthen transparency.

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Launching of the “Publish What You Pay” Cameroonian Coalition

Conference on the Growing Importance of African Oil, Co-Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the National Intelligence Council, held at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC

Washington, D.C., – The World Bank Group announced today its formal endorsement of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and pledged to work with several developing nations, as well as companies, on ways to publish revenues accruing from oil, gas, and mining sectors.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative was launched in September 2002 by British prime minister Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, and is being championed by the U.K.