Stakeholders with CSSL Officials
The Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL), on Friday, March 18, 2022 trained representatives of Civil Society Organization (CSO) on the challenges of oil and gas activities and environmental.
Under its ‘sustainably manage the impacts of offshore oil and gas activities in West Africa – Sierra Leone’ project, the event which was held in Freetown is aimed at engaging CSOs on the mitigation of oil and gas challenges in the country.
Charles Showers, Honorary President of CSSL, said the project is working towards mitigating the effect of oil and gas challenges and ensuring that it is minimized in Sierra Leone. “We know about the challenges posed by oil and gas in countries like Nigeria and so we should work to address pollution issues in Sierra Leone,” he said.
Abdul Kapr Dumbuya, CSSL’s head of Communications, remarked that it is good to engage CSOs in helping to address oil and gas challenges in their communities. The workshop, he said, is to develop knowledge on the ideas of oil and gas challenges and the environmental risks attached to them.
Mustapha Koroma, Petroleum Geophysicist/GIS Analyst at Petroleum Directorate Sierra Leone, said global oil production amounted to 88.4 million barrels per day in 2020. The level of oil production, he noted, reached an all-time high in 2019, at around 95 million barrels.
However, he went on, the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on transportation, demand for fuel led to a notable decline in 2020.
Koroma revealed that the world will continue for a considerable length of time to depend on oil and gas for most of its energy needs.
Sierra Leone, he added, had two phases of oil exploration since the 1960s and in the 80s.
He said that companies that were working on oil exploration had to leave during the Ebola outbreak, and that other companies have been allowed to operate currently.
“We currently we have eight wells, five have shown, including four discoveries,” Koroma said, adding that their primary objective is to bring back oil companies and have a much better negotiation. “We want to do another 10, 000 km long offset 2D Seismic, amend the 2011 Acts to include onshore area (Aeromagnetic and gravity data), ensure in-house study by Petroleum Directorate staff, and sign MOUs with Ghana Petroleum, Gambia Petroleum, and Equatorial Guinea Petroleum, etc,” he said.
For now, he said, the country does not have an active company working in the industry although some companies are showing interest.
“We remove politics from oil spill message to ensure credibility of the messenger and the message,” he advised CSO representatives. Stakeholders had the opportunity to make meaningful inputs and were assured that they will work in collaboration with CSSL in mitigating oil and gas challenges.