Le Cambodge et La malédication du pétrole ?"

Nouvelles du Cambodge N° 0629F

LE CAMBODGE ET «LA MALÉDICTION DU PÉTROLE ?»

Khemara Jati
Montréal, Québec
Le 17 juillet 2006

Maintenant nous avons la confirmation que le Cambodge possède des gisements importants de pétrole et de gaz sous son plateau continental. Et ce n’est qu’un début. Le problème est de savoir qui vont profiter de ces richesses ?

Tout d’abord, il faut chercher à connaître la quantité réelle de nos richesses déjà découvertes. Car pouvons-nous avoir une totale confiance dans les estimations des sociétés pétrolières ? N’oublions jamais que les sociétés pétrolières cherchent par tous les moyens à cacher la réalité de leurs découvertes. La misère des peuples des pays d’Afrique comme l’Angola par exemple qui possède d’énormes quantités de pétrole, ne nous incite-t-elle pas à la vigilance ?

D’autre part, il y a la voracité de nos voisins. Le Vietnam ne possède-t-il pas déjà un pied dans nos richesses pétrolières sous la forme de sa société Sokimex ? Sans compter les nombreuses complicités au sein du pouvoir actuel.

Le député du SRP, Yim Sovann a raison de soulever cette question :

« Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yim Sovann, chairman of the National Assembly’s Anti-Corruption Commission, said Cambodia did not have a law on the oil sector or on oil income management yet, and should establish clear policy guidelines before allowing oil exploration companies to proceed any further.

“We need to have and effective law, otherwise they will explore in anarchy and income will be lost to corrupt officials,” Sovann said.

The Word Bank Cambodia’s June Newsletter described the “resource curse” as the observation that since the 1970s, countries rich in natural resource (particularly oil, gas, and minerals) had achieved a slower rate of economic growth than resource-poor countries. Oil in particular generates a huge revenue stream for a government, but the number of taxpayers contributing to the oil revenue would be small. This made a government feel less accountable of its citizens and often led to worsening governance and large-scale corruption.” (Phnom Penh Post, July 14-27, 2006)

Dans Cambodia Daily du Wednesday, July 5, 2006, dans l’article “Chevron Ships drilling Rods to Sihanoukville” par Kay Kimsong,

“Yim Sovann said that the Assembly has not been regularly or fully informed about the exploration for oil, and called for the drafting of a law on managing oil and gas resources.

“Only a few people in government are dealing with oil and gas, such as Prime Minister Hun Sen and (Cabinet Minister) Sok An,” Yim Sovann said.

“If no law is adopted to protect crude oil and natural gas, these resources will be gone without profiting the Cambodian people,” he said.”

D’autre part, sans des ingénieurs et gestionnaires cambodgiens patriotes bien choisis et bien payés mandatés par des autorités compétentes et non corrompues, peut-on faire totalement confiance aux affirmations des sociétés pétrolières qui ont tendance à minimiser nos ressources et la réalité des exportations ? Comme dans beaucoup de pays d’Afrique, en Angola en particulier ?

D’autre part à quand la construction d’une raffinerie de pétrole et des usines électriques utilisant nos ressources en hydrocarbure ?

Nous reproduisons ci-dessous le texte intégral de l’article de Cheang Sokha, publié dans Phnom Penh Post du July 14-27, 2006.

Phnom Penh Post
July 14-27, 2006
Oil companies line up to drill off shore
By CHEANG SOKHA

Oil and gas exploration companies are lining up for a slice of the action in Cambodia's offshore oil field.

A Chevron-Ied consortium signed an agreement with Cam­bodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA) chairman Sok An on July 6 to begin drilling in an area 120 km off the coast known as Block A, and oil could be flow­ing in not much more than a year.

Meanwhile a Chinese com­pany and a French company have met separately with Prime Min­ister Hun Sen to express their in­terest in exploration.

But a warning has been sounded that Cambodia has yet to pass any laws controlling the exploitation of its petroleum re­serves and is in danger of falling prey to the so-called "resource curse," whereby through poor governance oil revenues could be corruptly diverted and most people receive little benefit.

Eang SophalIeth, Hun Sen's personal assistant, said Hun Sen met Charles Mattenet from French Company Total Petroleum on July 7, and Yao Pinli, public communi­cations director of the China Na­tional Oil Company, on July 3.

"Samdech Hun Sen welcomed the projects, which could gener­ate more revenue to the state bud­get, and advised them to meet with Sok An for further discus­sion," Sophalleth said.

Men Den, director of explora­tion and production at CNPA, said it was a good sign that the Chinese and French companies intend to explore for oil and gas in Cambodia, which had numer­ous oil deposits and an estimated three trillion cubic feet (85 billion cubic meters) of natural gas.

"The China National Oil Com­pany is the third biggest company in China and it specializes in ex­ploring for oil and gas," Den said.

On July 6, Sok An signed an agreement to drill in Block A with a consortium comprising the US company Chevron Oversea Pe­troleum Cambodia Ltd (55 per­cent), Japan' s Mitsui Oil Explora­tion Co Ltd (Moeco) (30 percent) and South Korea's GS Caltex (15 percent).

Chevron Texaco announced last year that its affiliate had dis­covered oil in four exploration wells in Block A. The 6,278 square kilometer block encompasses the Khmer basin, with water depths averaging 70 meters.

On June 27, Chevron Texaco Cambodia transported drilling equipment including more than 2,000 tons of cranes and rods to Sihanoukville port.

Sihanoukville port.deputy dir­ector-general Ma Sun Hout said Chevron had signed a one-year contract with the port to lease one hectare of land to store the equip­ment and the company would need roughly 15 hectares when drilling began next month. .

"The equipment will be taken to the weIl sites next month," Sun Hout said. "We will do our best to help them make the drilling process go well."

The CNPA's Den said Chev­ron had already drilled five wells since 2002 and would now start to drill other wells, but it would take more than a year to get into production.

"They are still in the studying process," Den said, "I estimate they will spend between $700 and $800 million on drilling,"

Den said several companies had looked for oil in Cambodia's offshore waters since 1992 but had withdrawn after calculating they would have to invest a lot for a limited return.

"We need to have an effective law, otherwlse they will explore in anarchy and income will be lost to corrupt officials. " - SRP's Yim Sovann.

World Bank economist Hout Chea said Cambodia could po­tentially get considerable benefit from exporting its oil and gas re­serves, but good management would be needed to keep the eco­nomy stable.

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yim Sovann, chairman of the Na­tional Assembly's Anti-Corrup­tion Commission, said Cambodia did not have a law on the oil sec­tor or on oil income management yet, and should establish clear policy guidelines before allowing
oil exploration companies to pro­ceed any further.

"We need to have an effective law, otherwise they will explore in anarchy and income will be lost to corrupt officiaIs," Sovann said.

The World Bank Cambodia's June newsletter described the "re­source curse" as the observation that since the 1970s, countries rich in natural resources (particularly oil, gas, and mineraIs) had achieved a slower rate of eco­nomic growth than resource-poor countries. Oil in particular gen­erated a huge revenue stream for a government, but the number of taxpayers contributing to the oil revenue would be small. This made a government feel less ac­countable to its citizens and often led to worsening governance and large-scale corruption.

The government awarded the petroleum production-sharing contract covering Block A to the Chevron Oversea Petroleum Cambodia and Moeco on August 15, 2002.

"There is a great momentum to promote the exploration, de­velopment and production of pe­troleum resources as well as to secure further international in­vestment in Cambodia' s oil and gas industry," Sok An said after the signing agreement ceremony at the time.

"We hope that exploration work by the Chevron Texaco and Moeco will succeed in finding hydrocarbons in offshore Cam­bodia and bring economic ben­efits to the people of Cambodia as weIl as to the company."

Posté par khemara Jati
khemarajati@sympatico.ca

This article is available into english upon request