Santiago – In a parliamentary hearing Wednesday in Germany,Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale AG (G.WLG) said the controversial OCP oil pipeline currently under construction in Ecuador meets World Bank (News – Websites) environmental standards – a position the World Bank doesn’t share.
“OCP met and continues to meet World Bank standards as one of several benchmarks for the development, technical implementation and construction of the project,” said WestLB, the $1.12 billion project’s main financier,
citing a study by engineering company Stone & Webster financed by the German institution.
However, according to World Bank officials, the multilateral lender remains concerned by the potential harm the project – that it is neither supporting nor funding – could inflict on sensitive rain forest areas in the Andean country.
“While we welcome such widespread acceptance and use of our standards, we do not, as a matter of institutional policy, certify compliance or noncompliance in projects that we do not finance or otherwise assist,including the OCP pipeline, ” World Bank officials Ian Johnson and David de Ferranti, wrote in a Dec. 19, 2001, letter to the OCP consortium.
A World Bank official said Wednesday the letter still reflects the Bank’s view of the project. The letter concluded: “We would like to recommend that OCP provide specific, independent verification of compliance with World Bank standards or, alternatively, refrain from claiming any such compliance.”
Due to its separation from the project, it’s unable to certify that the pipeline meets its environmental standards, it says. Members of the OCP consortium are oil companies Alberta Energy Co. Ltd.(AOG), Agip Petroleum , Kerr-McGee Corp. (NYSE:KMG – News), Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY – News), Repsol-YPF S.A. , and Perez Companc S.A., and construction firm Techint (I.TCH).
The West German state of North Rhine-Westphalia owns 43% of WestLB, with the remainder held by municipally owned banks. For the state government composed of Social Democrats and environmentalist Greens, the project has been an embarrassment. Wednesday’s hearing was held
after Green legislators found WestLB’s earlier testimony unsatisfactory and following government fact-finding missions to Ecuador. Government legislators weren’t reachable Wednesday.
OCP has also met stiff local opposition in Ecuador, including protests by indigenous groups and eco-tourism activists in the affected rain forest areas. The protests in Ecuador earlier led to some changes to the project. The 503 kilometer pipeline will now largely be placed underground.
Critics say that this could lead to underground oil leakage and contaminate ground water. According to WestLB Wednesday, the project is nearing completion and the
first oil could be pumped through the pipeline in June, with full operations beginning in September.
Company Web site: http://www.westlb.de
Web site on the WestLB/Parliamentary hearings: http://
www.gruene.landtag.nrw.de/themen/ak1/WestLB-Pipeline /Pipeline-uebersicht-
deutsch.rtf
