Unit 13: Environmentally Unit 13: Environmentally Friendly?Friendly?

Unit 13: Environmentally Unit 13: Environmentally Friendly?Friendly?

You are going to watch a report You are going to watch a report about the construction of a about the construction of a pipeline in Central Africa.pipeline in Central Africa.

Video Summary

• A consortium of oil companies led by ExxonMobil is construction a pipeline from a land-locked Chad through Cameroon to the coast, in order to export Chad’s crude oil. The report looks at the criticisms leveled at the project.

the Republic of Chad 乍得共和国

• 国旗： 呈长方形，长与宽之比为 3∶2 。旗面由三个平行相等的竖长方形构成。从左至右依次为蓝、黄、红三色。蓝色象征蓝天、希望和生活，还代表该国的南部；黄色象征阳光，以及该国的北部；红色象征进步、团结和愿为祖国献身的精神。

• 国旗 国徽

•位于非洲中北部，撒哈拉沙漠南缘，是个内陆国。北连利比亚，南与中非、喀麦隆交界，西与尼日尔、尼日利亚为邻，东和苏丹接壤

The Republic of Cameroon

•首都：雅温得（ Yaounde ）

Background

• This project has taken years to get off the ground in part because of environmental issues.

• The pipeline will be 1,050 miles long and 30 meters wide and the project included drilling 300 oil wells in southern Chad.

Get off the ground • Get off: 开始• Get off the ground ：开始发行，起飞

Has the Chad Cameroon Pipeline Project resulted in any benefits for

the population?

• The oil project has resulted in a substantial increase in the revenue flowing to the sectors that can help improve the lives of ordinary Chadians-including schools, health clinics, safe water and roads. As of the end of 2006, over $440 million was transferred to government to be allocated to these development priorities.

2

• However, with oil flowing less than four years, it is safe to say that the greatest benefits for the population are not yet realized.Inhabitants of the oil producing region around Doba （多巴） are beginning to see the results of a policy that sends five percent of oil revenues back to the region, as school buildings and equipment, water towers, modern markets, and more are being built and refurbished with oil earnings. As of year-end, some $30 million has been transferred to support citizens living near the production area.

Why did the World Bank resume lending to

Chad after a period of suspension? • The Bank suspended Chad from new

Bank lending because in late 2005, the government unilaterally enacted changes in the oil revenue management system in violation of its loan agreement with the Bank. A new agreement between the government and the Bank, increases the pool of resources going to poverty reduction by covering indirect revenues, such as taxes paid by the oil companies, as well as royalties and dividends arising from the oil project.

2• The Government of Chad has committ

ed 70 percent of its 2007 budget spending to priority domestic and poverty reduction programs, excluding, of course, military and police functions. Meanwhile, Chad is developing a new Poverty Reduction Strategy with the participation of all relevant stakeholders which will form the basis for determining future expenditure priorities.

Have Bank operations been affected by the security problems in Chad?

• The Bank monitors the security situation closely, and in the last year has had to make arrangements for evacuating staff and their dependents as a precaution. The office is functioning normally now. But security concerns remain a serious problem in Chad, which has been directly affected by the conflict in Darfur, as well as by violence in Northern Central African Republic. Ultimately, a just peace in Darfur is required for the subregion to expect lasting stability.

What is the status of the dispute involving the compensation of

citizens for the use of their land for

drilling oil wells? • The International Finance Corporation,

through an agreement with Exxon-Mobil, is responsible for enforcing agreed-to social and environment protections in the oil production areas in Chad. A recent independent review found that , although the project has had several positive impacts on the local communities, the operation has taken up more land than originally anticipated.

2• This has adversely affected some househol

ds that support themselves through subsistence agriculture. The IFC believes that the livelihoods of people affected by the operations need to be restored by finding alternative land or developing feasible opportunities for employment other than farming. Following discussions with IFC, Esso Chad is drafting a corrective action plan based on the independent review's recommendations.

Do the latest difficulties in realizing all the benefits of the pipeline project mean that

the Bank's approach on extractive industries

isn't valid? • The approach taken in Chad is less a

model for all oil-producing countries than a unique solution to a unique challenge. The basic principles underlying the approach taken in Chad-greater transparency and accountability in the use of oil revenues-remain central in the Bank's dialogue with a range of oil-producing countries. Some 20 countries have embraced the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which is a highly constructive trend.

What effects do you think the construction of such a pipeline could have on :

• A. the economy?• B. the environment?

Before you watch • Grueling work ：： gruel: exhausted • Laying a pipeline ：管道• Welding ：焊接 • Digging a trench: trench: 挖掘管沟• Rainforests ：雨林• Logging ：伐木搬运业

Complete these expressions with words from the box

• A consortium of oil companies • To undertake a project • To threaten or harm the environment • To replant Crops • To comply with standards • An advisory group • To step out of line / stand in the line • In dire need of • Dire : Urgent; desperate 急需的• in dire need; dire poverty. 紧急需要；极端缺乏

Crops a project standards the environment oil companies group of line need of

ExxonMobil• Exxon Mobil Corporation is the parent

of Esso, Mobil and ExxonMobil companies around the world.

ExxonMobil• ExxonMobil is the world’s largest publicly

traded international oil and gas company. We hold an industry-leading inventory of global oil and gas resources. We are the world’s largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products. And our chemical company ranks among the world’s largest. But we are also a technology company, applying science and innovation to find better, safer and cleaner ways to deliver the energy the world needs.

What we do

• ExxonMobil uses innovation and technology to deliver energy to a growing world. We explore for, produce and sell crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products.

• We operate facilities or market products in most of the world’s countries and explore for oil and natural gas on six continents.

CNN Reporter

• This is grueling work. The shift begins at seven in the morning and before the end of the day, the men must lay pipes covering a distance of five kilometers.

换班，轮班换班，轮班

CNN Reporter

• They work in teams; one places the pipes on the surface, then another moves in and welds them together, the third team does a second phase of welding before the pipes are placed in trenches two meters below the ground.

阶段阶段

CNN Reporter

• This is a $4 billion project undertaken by a consortium of oil companies led by ExxonMobil. When completed, it’ll provide land-locked Chad with a market for its crude oil.

内陆国

内陆国

CNN Reporter• Construction work began in Octob

er of 2000, including the development of three oil fields in Chad’s Doba basin. ExxonMobil and its partners say the Doba oil reserves will last 25 to 30 years.

多巴盆地

多巴盆地

储备储备

CNN Reporter

• Environmentalists say the project also threatens Cameroon’s rain forests —a vegetation already under threat from nomadic farmers, hunters and unregulated logging. Villagers will be allowed to replant crops on the land, but no tree or houses.

植被植被

游牧的游牧的

CNN Reporter

• The World Bank’s involvement in the project has been criticised by some, especially since an internal report released in September said the project will harm the environment.

• But the bank says there is an independent advisory group established to ensure that all involved comply with environmental standards.

• We are using or working with external partners to ensure that this complies. And I think that’s about as much as the bank or these governments can do. And, if the oil companies were to step out of line, I think we’ve got enough leverage to, to ensure that, uh, …they meet their commitments.

First Man

义务，承诺

杠杆作用

CNN Reporter• Many of the people here are farmers,

and will lose a significant number of their crops and farmland.

• Towns along the pipeline route are in dire need of roads, more schools, hospitals, and other essentials. Critics say the project brings no such development to these communities.

• ExxonMobil counters that argument by pointing to the employment opportunities the project has provided thus far. Thousands of people are employed in both Chad and Cameroon, and 85 percent of them come from local villages.

CNN Reporter

• Before this project started year 1999, year 2000, the growth of Chad was 1%, GDP growth of Chad was 1%. We started construction activity at the end of year 2000. Growth in Chad in 2001 was 9%

Second Man

Yet, critics say those figures are miniscule when compared with the millions that ExxonMobil stands to make. And , as construction of the Chad/Cameroon pipeline nears completion, there are even calls for a reevaluation of the project to ensure that development does indeed come to towns such as this one, in the heart of central Cameroon.

CNN Reporter 极小的极小的