The Democratic Republic of Congo has expanded a contentious oil licensing round in what its hydrocarbons minis- ter called a response to calls for mo
The Democratic Republic of Congo has expanded a contentious oil licensing round in what its hydrocarbons minis- ter called a response to calls for more crude production from western gov- ernments after the war in Ukraine.
Didier Budimbu said that Congo had “no choice” but to increase the number of oil exploration blocks it will auction next week from 16 to 27, after US President Joe Biden travelled to Saudi Arabia to urge the kingdom to pump more oil, and the EU had reopened coal power plants.
“We have the right to benefit from our natural wealth,” the hydrocarbons min- ister said, arguing that income from the sale of the blocks could go towards building new schools, motorways and hospitals. “We are a free, sovereign nation, so we will exploit it.”
Congo, home to 92mn people, pro- duces about 25,000 barrels a day of crude from a small number of onshore and offshore blocks along its coast. The government has long held ambitions to produce oil in other parts of the huge interior but environmental concerns,
‘We have the right to benefit from our natural wealth. We are a free nation, so we will exploit it’
corruption and a lack of export options have held back exploration activity.
The 11 blocks that have been added to the auction include two areas that over- lap with Virunga National Park, a pro- tected area on the eastern edge of the central African country, Budimbu said.
Soco International and Dominion Petroleum pulled out of oil exploration in Virunga, home to some of the world’s last mountain gorillas, after a global backlash in 2014 spurred partly by exposure in a Netflix documentary.
“A few years ago people shoved their noses into this, we saw actors like Ben Affleck and Leonardo di Caprio get on their high horse and ask for the project to come to a halt,” Budimbu said of actors who have campaigned to protect Virunga. “This time we will not stop.”
The blocks up for auction also include parts of the Cuvette Centrale, an area described by activists as a “carbon time bomb” because of the vast quantities of carbon dioxide which could be released if its wet peatlands are disturbed. The spot contains about 30 gigatonnes of carbon, according to the UN, equivalent to about a year’s worth of global annual emissions. Environmental groups have called on the government to cancel the tender, first announced last year, because of the potential for drilling to destroy peatlands and protected areas.
Budimbu said the potential reserves covered by the auction could be worth as much as $1tn at current oil prices, but there is no guarantee any blocks will be developed and Congo is likely to make only a fraction of that from the tender.