Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ABIDJAN361
2006-04-04 08:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abidjan
Cable title:  

OIL SPILL OFF IVORY COAST

Tags:  SENV ENRG EPET 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAB #0361 0940837
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 040837Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1164
C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000361 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2016
TAGS: SENV ENRG EPET
SUBJECT: OIL SPILL OFF IVORY COAST


Classified By: Classified by DCM V.Valle for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000361

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2016
TAGS: SENV ENRG EPET
SUBJECT: OIL SPILL OFF IVORY COAST


Classified By: Classified by DCM V.Valle for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary. An oil spill off the coast of Ivoiry Coast
caused by the Canadian oil company CNR has largely been
cleaned up. However, the Minister of Environment told the
Ambassador he was unhappy with uncommunicativeness from CNR
and alleged that Ivoirians close to the Presidency who are
partners with CNR were working to block the investigation of
the incident. The Minister added he may seek foreign
assistance with the investigation and cleanup (the latter
apparently now a moot point.). CNR is alleging that some in
the government are exaggerating the incident to extract
compensation from the company. End summary.


2. (U) During the night of 28- 29 March, Canadian Natural
Resources (CNR) a Canadian oil company operating offshore
here generated an oil spill after it released, through human
or technical error, waste water contaminated with oil from a
drilling boat near the oil rig of Al Baraka, off the shore of
Jacquesville, some 100 kilometers from Abidjan. Although the
amount of petroleum that was released was not large, the
spill spread over the next several days and reached shore at
a point near Jacqueville. CNR representatives maintin that
they signed a contract with Hampton, a UK-based company, to
clean up the spill as soon as the spill was discovered. CNR
claims that, except for a slick that reached the beach, the
spill had been cleaned up by March 31.


3. (C) In response to the spill, the Ivoirian government set
up an interagency committee composed of representatives from
CIAPOL (the Ivorian crisis response unit) and the Ministries
of Environment, Transport, Energy and Mines, and Fishing.
The Minister of the Environment and the head of CIAPOL met
with the Ambassador on April 1 to indicate that the Ivoirian
government may seek assistance for investigation of the spill
and for the cleanup operation. (The Minister also called on
the French and Canadian Ambassadors.) The Minister lacked
information about what had happened and complained that the
Canadian company had not reported the spill to the government
on a timely basis nor had it been forthcoming with
information. The Minister also maintained that the CNR had
not used an approved method for combatting the spill. The
Minister added that Ivoirians close to the Presidency were
working with CNR and suggested that these Ivoirians were
trying to block a full investigation into what had occurred
and influence how it was addressed.


4. (SBU) The Canadian DCM told us that he and the Minister
of the Environment and CNR officials had overflown the area
of the spill on April 2 and he could confirm that there was
no longer any oil in the water. The Canadian DCM also
admitted that CNR had initially not been as communicative as
it should have been with the government. He attributed that
to the absence of the company,s Director General, who had
been in Gabon. Whatever the mistakes in communication, he
averred that CNR is a serious company and that it had behaved
responsibly in combating the spill. The Canadian DCM also
suggested that some in the government (not the environment
minister but perhaps, he suggested, the head of CIAPOL) could
be trying to exaggerate the incident in order to make the
company pay compensation.


5. (SBU) CNR officials also told us they believe that the
press was exaggerating the breadth of the spill and that the
Ivoirian government was misrepresenting the efforts of CNR to
address the issue in order to extract compensation for
environmental damage. (Already, fishermen who were ordered
by the government to refrain from fishing in the affected
area have asked the government for compensation for their
losses.) CNR insisted that the chemical used to clean the
spill by making the oil sink was environmentally benign and
that there will be no permanent impact on the local marine
ecosystem as a result of the spill or the clean-up
methodology. CNR will issue a report within the next few
days on the clean-up response and its environmental impact.

6. (C) Comment: The Minister of Environment,s allegations
about Presidential insiders covering up an inquiry into the
spill and the countercharges that government officials are
trying to extort from CNR are a reminder of Cote d,Ivoire,s
tortuous politics. Apparently, even an oil spill here cannot
be handled in a straightforward or transparent manner.
Hooks