okavango basin oil
The regions of Kavango East and Kavango West are home to 200,000 people — including the indigenous San — making a living from farming, fishing, and tourism. But ReconAfrica’s plans are touching off mounting questions and opposition. The Okavango river basin is still relatively pristine, but oil and gas extraction could affect groundwater levels and contaminate surface water and groundwater resources, eventually reaching the Okavango … Wildlife Watch is an investigative reporting project between National Geographic Society and National Geographic Partners focusing on wildlife crime and exploitation. (ReconAfrica denies that it plans to use fracking during the exploratory phase, and the Namibian government did not respond to questions about potential fracking plans.). Scot Evans, ReconAfrica’s CEO, is a former Halliburton vice president with decades of technical and operational experience fracking shale oil in the U.S., and Nick Steinsberger, the senior vice president for drilling and completions, is often referred to as one of the fathers of fracking for his promotion of the use of high-pressure water mixed with chemicals to crack open the rocks. Hundreds of oil wells could come to cover a huge expanse in Namibia and Botswana, in what has been called possibly the “largest oil play of the decade.”. Mail & Guardian 12 Feburary 2021 Okavango Delta under threat from oil, gas exploration Neighboring shale plays give analysts even more confidence there's sizable oil supply. Oil development “is a threat to our livelihood,” Lekgowa said. “We get fish and fruits from the river, so if this drilling pollutes the river, this is not going to benefit us—it is going to kill us.”. A key concern is the impact on the region’s water supplies. After examining ReconAfrica’s September 2019 investor proposal describing drilling, possible fracking, and the digging of hundreds of wells in the area, she said that “either the Namibian government didn’t read the fine print or it is in denial as to what it signed off on.”. Currently, the drive is laborious, the road pocked with deep holes, with frequent sections of bone-shaking corrugated ridges. Some 18,000 of the country’s estimated 130,000 elephants roam the Okavango region, many within the area that ReconAfrica looks to exploit for oil and gas. The Okavango Delta is recognized by an act of the U.S. Congress and various other treaties. Local residents say some women from the area have been hired to work in the kitchen and the other opportunities are one-week contracts for jobs such as digging a vegetable garden. Here’s how they do it. Fixing the Grand Canyon’s aging water pipeline won’t be easy—but it’s necessary. “This kind of stuff has failed to deliver development to this part of the country.”. This time the threat extends to the south of the continent. © 1999-2021 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. At the same time, she reiterated that fracking isn’t applicable to ReconAfrica’s exploration license and insisted that the company was focused on “hydrocarbons in conventional reservoirs” that don’t need to be fracked. ReconAfrica’s prospecting and exploration license in Botswana also encompasses the Tsodilo Hills, a World Heritage site that UNESCO has called the “Louvre of the desert”—a repository for more than 4,500 rock paintings, some dating back 1,200 years, created by the Indigenous San. The Okavango river basin is still relatively pristine, but oil and gas extraction could affect groundwater levels and contaminate surface water and groundwater resources, eventually reaching the Okavango … The project has undertaken scientific expeditions to document biodiversity and human presence in the region, amassing a mountain of data intended to demonstrate why this globally vital region, with its all-important natural water supply, should have the highest level of protection. Photograph by BEVERLY JOUBERT, Nat Geo Image Collection, Photograph by George Osodi/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Animal tracks signal teeming abundance in the Okavango Delta. JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICAConservationists and community leaders in the spectacular Okavango wilderness region of Namibia and Botswana are raising alarms over oil and gas exploration and potential production that they fear would threaten the water resources of thousands of people and endangered wildlife. Please join us by donating today to ensure this important work continues and thrives. This desert oasis is so extraordinary—and fragile—that in 2014, UNESCO added it to its list of World Heritage sites. Designated Play of the Year by oil and gas … The threat from oil drilling to one of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems and to more than 200,000 people who live in this desert region “boggles the mind,” said Willem Odendaal, the former land, environment, and development project coordinator at Namibia’s Legal Assistance Centre, a public interest law firm based in the capital, Windhoek. ReconAfrica, a petroleum exploration company headquartered in Canada, has licensed more than 13,600 square miles of land in the two countries. Designated Play of the Year by oil and gas investment … It’s possibly the world’s “largest oil play of the decade,” Oilprice.com, an energy news site, said in September. This story was originally published by Yale Environment 360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Experts who have reviewed the Namibian environmental impact assessment for the test wells point to serious problems in the way it was carried out. Meanwhile, approval for a drilling permit in the licensed area in Botswana is under way. “What will the neighboring countries do when their livelihoods are impacted because of a choice Namibia made for them?” she asked. Photograph by Aaron Huey, Nat Geo Image Collection. Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include more information about the role of the environmental assessment practitioner’s responsibilities and statements. This approach to solutions-based journalism depends on the support of our readers. What does a COVID-19 outbreak mean for life at Everest’s base camp? On February 15, parliament voted … Hays has worked closely with San communities in the region for more than 20 years. Reader support keeps our work free. The public wants to know what the likely consequences would be of an oil find and the impacts to the Kavango regions and to the Okavango Basin. Located in the Okavango wilderness region of Namibia and Botswana, the massive Kavango Basin is thought to hold more than 30 billion barrels of crude oil. Energy. The more we celebrate progress, the more progress we can make. Angola Revokes Law Banning Oil Exploration in Okavango Basin Candido Mendes 2/19/2021 US Coronavirus: Increased traveling and spring … “We drink from the river because we live far from the town, and we don’t have treated water, but if these people come with a system that will damage the water, this is life-threatening to us.”, Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright © 2015-2021 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Similarly, the American Ornithological Society published a report in 2018 showing that competing noise from oil development caused birds in Alberta, Canada, to change their songs. Mail & Guardian 08 March 2021 Stop oil and gas drilling in Namibia’s Kavango Basin immediately — Anglican Church. Neither Namibia’s mining nor environment ministries responded to questions about ReconAfrica’s long-term plans. They said that the assessment, consisting only of desktop studies without any fieldwork, is not sufficient to justify the proposed drilling. New roads also facilitate animal poaching by providing easy access to wild places. ReconAfrica has a dynamite chance to open up what could be one of the biggest oil discoveries in decades.. Local leaders and residents have not been encouraged by the environmental assessment practitioner who wrote the EIA, Sindila Mwiya of Risk-Based Solutions. Alongside agriculture, tourism — including hunting — is one of the main industries, and locals are worried that extensive oil drilling could drive away wildlife — and visitors. “But the people, the community closest to the area, they have to benefit from this project.”. Few other water sources are available during the long dry season here. More than a million Africans rely on it for their water and livelihood. (The studies and other documents were not made available to National Geographic by either the government or the company, despite requests.). This approximately 7,000-square-mile wetland amid the Kalahari Desert is fed by rains in Angola’s highlands. Muyemburuko says, however, that he does not oppose ReconAfrica’s plans, per se. Oil and gas discoveries like the Eagle Ford Basin helped make the United States the largest oil and gas producer in the world, but have also created massive problems, according to … “ReconAfrica refuses to talk about the bigger picture – what the landscape would look like in the event of an oil find,” Chris Brown, CEO of the Namibian Chamber of Environment — an industry-sponsored organization that works with environmental groups — said in an email. Lekgowa said that no one has told her anything about ReconAfrica’s plans for water use, and she wonders what her community will do if the delta’s waters aren’t protected from possible contamination by oil and gas exploitation upstream. Specific steps are taken that are part of our plans and verified by environmental auditors and technical specialists. ReconAfrica has said it ultimately hopes to drill hundreds of wells in the Kavango Basin. Its farms support only about 70 percent of its people, and the lands under ReconAfrica’s drilling license have more than 600 working farms, some irrigated with water from the Okavango River. The ministry did not answer questions from National Geographic but said in a press release on September 18 that “the socioeconomic impacts of exploratory drilling will result in the employment of locals” and many other benefits, such as new water wells for communities near the proposed drill sites. Okavango River Basin including all main tributaries and the Okavango Delta with its entrance at Mohembo gauging station and outlet at Maun (data source: NIWR, … Critics of the ReconAfrica development, including a group of Anglican bishops, have declared that the exploration “violates San rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”, “The process has not been an open one, with Namibians waking up to [an oil] venture that has already been signed and settled,” the Bishop of Namibia, Reverend Luke Pato, said in a statement. The public wants to know what the likely consequences would be of an oil find and the impacts to the Kavango regions and to the Okavango Basin. Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy, however, is emphasizing the potential positive effects. Take away that water, “and the Okavango Delta would cease to exist. These little-known sites help families connect to Asian American history. The Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage site and biodiversity hot spot in Botswana, is downstream of the region ReconAfrica is exploring for oil and gas. Donate now, and all gifts get matched through May 31. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the organization that keeps a record of Earth’s dwindling species, ReconAfrica’s license encompasses the territories of seven endangered animal species, among them the gray crowned crane and the African wild dog, and four critically endangered animals, including the black rhinoceros and white-backed vulture. All rights reserved, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates, Animal Investigators: How the World’s First Wildlife Forensics Lab Is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species. According to the UN, Namibia cannot feed itself. RECONAFRICA (TSX-V:RECO, OTCQX:RECAF, FRA:0XD). Botswana is home to the continent’s largest remaining herds of African elephants. “The strategic question that arises,” he said, “is whether the potential benefits of [petroleum] outweigh the potential cost of alteration to the only permanent flowing surface water” in the region. That includes the volumes of water needed, the number of boreholes, where the water will be taken from the Omatako, how the extraction of water could affect nearby water wells or surrounding communities, and the disposal and treatment of wastewater from drilling. Then Bitcoin came along. Geochemist and ReconAfrica shareholder Daniel Jarvie estimated the basin has the potential to produce as much as 120 billion barrels of oil equivalent, which would make it one of the biggest global oil finds in recent years. Located in the Okavango wilderness region of Namibia and Botswana, the massive Kavango Basin is thought to hold more than 30 billion barrels of crude oil. After Muyemburuko emailed Mwiya some questions in January, Mwiya — who is supposed to be unbiased in his role — responded by labeling one question about the removal of trees as “stupidity and nonsense of the highest level” and accusing Muyemburuko of “Eurocentric and colonial thinking” in denying people the chance for jobs and regional development. Annette Hübschle and others emailed Mwiya, copying National Geographic, in late 2020 requesting the register and to be added to that list of interested and affected parties “for any future developments pertaining to the license.”, Mwiya did not provide the register, and he said that the review process he was responsible for—the test wells—was already complete. ANPG launched a tender on January 21 to study the accessibility of the Etosha-Okavango Basin. ReconAfrica has a dynamite chance to open up what could be one of the biggest oil discoveries in decades.. “Biodiversity is a determinant of public health—without these wild animals doing ecosystem services for us, we can’t survive.” Elephants, for example, fertilize and seed trees with their dung and excavate the ground, opening up water sources for other animals. The Angolan parliament has revoked a ban on exploration for crude oil and natural gas in protected areas, including the wildlife-rich Okavango Basin. Here, on the border of Namibia and Botswana, there’s a Permian basin the same size as the Eagle Ford in Texas. The Kavango Basin, as the area is known to geologists, is larger than the country of Belgium, and ReconAfrica says it could hold up to 31 billion barrels of crude oil—more than the United States would use in four years if consumption remained the same as in 2019. The conservancy makes money through sustainable hunting and as a destination for wildlife-watching visitors. Migration routes extend beyond the delta across a mostly unfenced landscape. Numerous people have accused him of acting hostilely toward anyone questioning ReconAfrica’s activities. Prospecting will be allowed in 5% of protected zones and “possibly” only 3% will be drilled, Mineral Resources Minister Diamantino Azevedo said. A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. “Clean water: That is the oil and the gold,” David Quammen wrote in a 2017 National Geographic magazine story documenting the Okavango Wilderness Project, an initiative supported by the nonprofit National Geographic Society in partnership with other nonprofits and the Namibian government. Located in the wilderness of Okavango, Namibia and Botswana, the huge Kavango Basin is believed to contain more than 30 billion barrels of crude oil. Okavango Delta under threat from oil, gas exploration Water is a scarce and precious commodity in Namibia, the driest country south of the Sahara, say … Prospecting will be allowed in 5% of protected zones and “possibly” only 3% will be drilled, Mineral Resources Minister Diamantino Azevedo said. ReconAfrica’s Preece said the company “will be drilling a water well, then turning it over to the local community” and “will work with them to provide ongoing sustainable opportunities” for making money. How were China's legions of terra-cotta warriors made? We asked Shinovene Immanuel, a local journalist, to take up the offer, but when Immanuel got to the office, he was given just a copy of the assessment itself without any supporting documentation. The public wants to know what the likely consequences would be of an oil find and the impacts to the Kavango regions and to the Okavango Basin. “It is shocking that this EIA was authorized at all,” said Avena Jacklin, a former environmental consultant in the mining sector. “I didn’t know there is some company that will come to drill the oil,” said Jacob Hamutenya, chairperson of George Mukoya Conservancy, which is about 50 miles from one of the test well sites. How Berkshire Hathaway fed investors a flawed narrative about their climate progress. The company, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, has secured these concessions from the governments of Botswana and Namibia. Namibia’s Environmental Management Act stipulates that an assessment be done “in an objective manner.” Throughout the EIA, Mwiya highlights the benefits of the project, and he encouraged the government to approve it. It would become something else, and that something would not include hippos, sitatungas, or African fish eagles," he wrote. Emerging on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, water shimmers like a mirage in the Okavango Delta. Many Namibians, including environmentalists and even some in government, were surprised when ReconAfrica shipped an exploratory drilling rig to Namibia in late 2020. It’s called the Kavango Basin and has never been drilled.. ReconAfrica refuses to discuss this.” A key concern is the impact on the region’s water supplies. Their village — 90 minutes along a potholed dirt road from the town of Rundu on the Namibia-Angola border — was peaceful, with the sounds of birdsong and the wind rustling the tree leaves. Whatever ReconAfrica’s intentions, its test wells will require large quantities of water. Max Muyemburuko is the chairperson of the Kavango East and West Regional Conservancy and Community Forestry Association. “Who knows what’s going to happen to the Okavango Delta? ReconAfrica’s initial goal, already approved by the Namibian government, is to drill test wells roughly one and a half miles deep in the country’s northeast starting in December 2020 to determine the presence of exploitable oil and gas. The Okavango region is home to the largest herd of African elephants left on Earth and myriad other animals—African wild dogs, lions, leopards, giraffes, amphibians and reptiles, birds—and rare flora. ReconAfrica has compared the geological conditions in the Kavango to the Karoo Basin in South Africa — an area where fracking has begun for natural gas — and the company seems confident it has found a major petroleum play. “Our income is coming from wildlife and tourists, but if that oil industry comes, it will destroy everything,” Hamutenya said, perusing a map of the locations of the test wells. Although many of the inhabitants of the region say they do not necessarily oppose oil drilling, they are concerned that they have largely been left in the dark and will not gain financially from the oil play. National Geographic repeatedly asked Timoteus Mufeti, Namibia’s environmental commissioner, why the environmental impact assessment didn’t disclose water use by the test drilling, and to comment on problems the drilling could cause for local people and the environment. Hamweyi village headman Mangundu Reinhardt — who also said he was not consulted or informed about ReconAfrica’s plans — said that he’d heard few complaints because most people simply had no idea what was happening. He eventually said he was too busy to talk but that we could come to his office in Windhoek to review the environmental impact assessment and all supporting documentation we’d requested. Oil exploration is once again threatening biodiversity in Africa. ADVERTISEMENT This story was initially printed by Yale Setting 360 and is reproduced right here as a part of the Local weather Desk collaboration. More than two trillion gallons of water flow in each year to create a shifting, verdant patchwork of islands, channels, and lagoons. The Kavango Basin offers a thick Permian sequence that we believe will supply a huge conventional oil play. Fracking in particular is of ecological concern because it requires large amounts of water and has been known to cause earthquakes, pollute water, release greenhouse gases, and lead to cancers and birth defects, among other problems. At present, few fences section off the Okavango wilderness, so as the waters return every year, eland scatter into surrounding areas to find good fodder, and as the antelope disperse, predators—including packs of wild dogs, prides of lions, and solitary leopards and cheetahs—follow them. ReconAfrica’s drilling areas overlap with a multicountry conservation park, six locally managed wildlife reserves, and one UNESCO World Heritage site (and could affect another, the Okavango Delta, nearby). San people from the Khwe and Ju/'hoansi communities in Namibia and Botswana revere this sacred place. With six other San leaders, Beckett walked more than 300 miles in February from the South African town of Knysna to Cape Town, to present the Namibian diplomatic mission with a petition opposing drilling in the Kavango Basin. The Okavango Basin, and specifically the delta, is an important place for us to work because it’s one of the most biodiverse habitats in Africa, and it provides water for more than 1 million people. The Angolan parliament has revoked a ban on exploration for crude oil and natural gas in protected areas, including the wildlife-rich Okavango Basin. The Kavango Basin, as the area is known to geologists, is larger than the country of Belgium, and ReconAfrica says it could hold up to 31 billion barrels of crude oil… Members of ReconAfrica’s Kavango Basin senior team include fracking experts. Design and build by Upstatement. Namibia and Botswana share the Okavango river basin and share the Kalahari Desert, which has enormous renewable energy potential. Experts say that if large-scale oil production in a massive area north and west of the delta were to proceed, it would harm this fragile ecosystem. Will COVID-19 cancel your family reunion? The basin in also comparable in size to the entire Eagle Ford Basin in Texas (6.9 million acres). “I certainly can’t answer that. This power plant stopped burning fossil fuels. In a time when we know that oil is creating climate havoc worldwide, to look for oil even in proximity to the famed Okavango Delta should shame us. In a report on fracking, the Transnational Institute, an international research and advocacy group based in the Netherlands, raises concerns about loss of community control of land and water where fracking occurs, “especially through water diversion, depletion, and contamination.”, “This is one of the worst forms of land theft and neocolonial resource extraction,” said Annette Hübschle, a Namibian-raised environmental social scientist and senior research fellow with the Global Risk Governance Programme at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa. Most of the delta’s water originates as seasonal rain in Angola’s forested central highlands, flows into the Okavango River, and snakes in a three-month journey across the Caprivi Strip before spreading out like a many-fingered hand in the northwestern corner of Botswana. Hawkers hold giant wild mushrooms — omajowa, a seasonal delicacy — aloft to passing vehicles. An influx of oil workers into this remote landscape—and the money, roads, alcohol, and pollution they’d bring—would jeopardize the traditional way of life of the San, said Jennifer Hays, a professor of social anthropology at the Arctic University of Norway.
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