<\/p>\n\n
Kinshasa, 13 October 2022 \u2013 Nine companies<\/a> are bidding for exploration rights to fossil gas in Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) including US-based\u00a0Symbion Power<\/a>, a firm which appears to have no experience in gas exploration. DRC\u2019s Hydrocarbons Minister has said<\/a> he seeks to sign production sharing agreements with successful bidders by 30 October, a timeline which flies in the face of the vetting procedure required by Congolese law<\/a>. Firms are expected<\/a> to pay hefty \u201cbonuses\u201d upon contract signature.<\/p>\n\n \u201cThe law stipulates a lengthy evaluation and verification process following the receipt of initial expressions of interest and the filing of bids. To properly execute these requirements in just two week is a mission impossible,\u201d says Irene Wabiwa, International Lead for the Congo Basin forest campaign. \u201cA hasty process is an open invitation to plunder the Congolese people and the ecosystems they depend on, while rapidly enriching an ecocidal elite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n After a public opening of \u201cexpressions of interest,\u201d Congolese law allows firms whose documents failed to meet initial criteria five days to contest their disqualification from bidding. Following the publication of a final list of qualified bidders, the law demands the Ministry to invite bids comprising financial and technical offers. The law requires that verification of these offers include visits to companies\u2019 headquarters and operating sites. Upon the approval of selected bidders by the Council of Ministers, and publication of winners, rejected bidders have five days to contest the results. Only then can contract negotiations begin. <\/p>\n\n No strategic environmental evaluation of the decision to auction oil and gas rights was conducted to date, as required by Congolese law. Three of the Ministry\u2019s calls for tenders, including the one for the Kivu blocks, contain flagrant procedural anomalies<\/a>. Oil blocks were designated without the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of local communities, as reported recently<\/a> by seven Congolese and international NGOs. The gas blocks overlap with most of Idjwi Island and will inevitably impact the lives of its 300,000 residents<\/a>, including Bambuti Indigenous People<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n Last July the DRC auctioned 27 oil blocks, including rainforest and peatland areas, and three gas blocks. The auction followed the signature of a $500 million forest deal with the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI<\/a>) donor group at COP26 last year, which greenlighted new oil and gas activity in the rainforest. <\/p>\n\n Despite greenwashing efforts<\/a> by DRC\u2019s Environment Minister at a recent pre-COP27 \u201cscientific\u201d conference, the tender is facing opposition from local communities<\/a>, scientists<\/a>, climate activists<\/a>, and Congolese and international NGOs<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n ENDS<\/p>\n\n Contacts:<\/p>\n\n Greenpeace Africa Press Desk<\/strong>: pressdesk.africa@greenpeace.org<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n Tal Harris<\/strong>, Nine companies are bidding for exploration rights to fossil gas in Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) including US-based Symbion Power, a firm without clear experience in gas exploration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":52455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33],"tags":[40,47],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-52446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-changemycommunity","category-protecttheenvironment","tag-conservation","tag-drc","p4-page-type-press"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52469,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52446\/revisions\/52469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52446"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=52446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
International Communications Coordinator,
Greenpeace Africa: tharris@greenpeace.org<\/a> <\/strong>
Rapha\u00ebl Mavambu<\/strong>,
Communications and Media Consultant,
Greenpeace Africa: rmavambu@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"