China oil ventures in Burma add to climate change woes

http://www.greenassembly.net/http:/greenassembly.net/2008/10/21/china/china-oil-ventures-in-burma-add-to-climate-change-woes/

Posted on October 21st, 2008 by Green Assembly
BANGKOK ~ The unregulated development of oil and gas fields in Burma (Myanmar) is creating a potential environmental disaster that will have a major impact on global warming and climate change, a study released today revealed.

“Blocking Freedom”, a damning new report by environmental and human rights group Arakan Oil Watch said Chinese companies will soon start oil extraction in Arakan state on the country’s western coast.

This is to be followed by the construction of a 2,380 kilometre pipeline that will cut a 200-metre-wide swathe across the whole country, destroying ancient forest and agricultural land in addition to disturbing billions of tonnes of soil on its path to Kunming in China.


Environmentalists say that until more details about the pipeline are revealed it is impossible to determine the precise amount of CO2 that will be released into the atmosphere during construction.


Ramree Island is marked by the pushpin just south of Sittwe“What we are talking about here is disturbing and converting an area of nearly half a million hectares (1.2 million acres) That’s about the size of Singapore,” said Green Assembly climate change expert, Jonathan Green.

Soil represents a short- to long-term carbon storage medium, and contains more carbon than all terrestrial vegetation and the atmosphere combined [Wikipedia]. When soil is disturbed the carbon is oxidised and released into the atmosphere as CO2.



Construction of the pipeline, which will contain twin pipes, one carrying oil and the other carrying natural gas from Arakan to China, could start as early as 2009.

The gas pipe will be under the control of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), while the oil pipe will be controlled by another Chinese company, SINOPEC.

Exploration of the oil and gas fields, which are mostly on Arakan state’s Ramree Island, has been going on since 2005 through a consortium led by China National Offshore Oil Company Ltd. (CNOOC).

The New York and Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed CNOOC has been partnered on the project by Singapore-based Golden Aaron Pte. Ltd. which is owned by Stephen Law, son of notorious drug baron Lo Hsing Han.

In addition to the environmental damage that will be done by the pipeline throughout Burma, there is also likely to be extensive damage in Arakan itself.

Arakan Oil Watch spokesman Peter Halford said: “It’s difficult to see how they can avoid going through an extremely sensitive mangrove forest of about 60,000 acres at the very outset of the pipeline.”

Chinese firms have been awarded the right to exploit 16 onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks, more than any of the other 11 countries currently investing in Burma’s oil and gas sector.

“Chinese and many other oil companies operating in Burma have impressive corporate social responsibility statements. Unfortunately in Burma, these statements are simply empty rhetoric,” said Arakan Oil Watch director, Mr Jockai Khaing, adding that there is no such thing as human rights or environmental law in his country.

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