Chad/Cameroon oil pipeline moving forward.

A controversial plan to construct a 1,000 kilometer oil pipeline through the heart of Cameroon--a plan that critics have called an environmental and social boondoggle--is back on track after several delays. The international consortium promoting the project, led by ExxonMobil, fell apart last November, when two of the three major partners--Royal Dutch Shell and the French company Elf Aquitaine--dropped out, saying the project was a potential public-relations disaster. But in March, two oil corporations, Malaysia's Petronas, and U.S.-based Chevron, signed on with hopes of reviving the scheme.

The $3.5 billion dollar project will drill 300 oil wells in the Doba oil fields of southern Chad, and connect them to the Atlantic by building a pipeline that will run the length of Cameroon. Each day, 225,000 barrels of oil will be pumped into tankers for export. Running through the heart of Cameroon's Atlantic Littoral Forest, the massive pipeline would have enormous environmental and social repercussions: threatening biodiversity by opening up pristine rainforest to illegal poachers and extractive industries, polluting the marine ecosystem and endangering fisheries, and dislocating thousands of local and indigenous people. Of particular concern is the project's lack of an emergency plan to deal with an oil spill, especially since the pipeline makes at least 17 major river crossings. Even one leak could seriously pollute water supplies in both Chad and Cameroon, according to the Bank Information Center.

Both governments have also come under fire for their repressive crack-downs on critics of the project. One Chadian parliament member was arrested for questioning the plan and accusing a fellow parliament member of accepting money from oil companies. Local communities and nongovernmental groups have not been included in the planning process, and questions have been raised about the project's supposed development benefits. For two consecutive years the Berlin-based NGO Transparency International has ranked Cameroon as the world's most corrupt country. Under the current plan, only 4.5 percent of the project's direct revenues are to be spent on development in the affected communities in Chad, and no such assurances have been made in Cameroon.

The future of the project is contingent on the approval of the World Bank. While the Bank is slated to lend only a small share of money for the project--$365 million--ExxonMobil has declared that it will not participate in the scheme unless the bank is on board to help defray risks and complications.