All drilling activities by China National Petroleum Corporation's subsidiary in the Republic of Chad were indefinitely suspended. This was confirmed Tuesday through state radio by the country's oil minister, Djerassem Le Bemadjiel. The reasons given for the suspension were mostly due to violations of environmental standards while CNPC was drilling for oil in the southern part of Chad.
Le Bemadjiel further stated, "We found flagrant violations of environmental standards by the company ... CNPC's behaviour was unacceptable,"
"Not only do they not have facilities to clean spilled crude, there were also intentional spillages in order reduce costs," the minister said.
After inspection of CNPC's operations in Koudalwa field which is around 200 km or 124 miles south of Chad's capital, N'Djamena, a decision was made to suspend all drilling in the area.
Le Bemadjiel also added that the company dug trenches where they dumped crude without any precautions. Afterwards, they asked local workers to remove the crude without the provision of any protective gear.
CNPC was not available for any comment. Additional calls placed to its main office in Beijing were not answered.
Chad and CNPC previously had a dispute in their often volatile relationship regarding local market prices. This row resulted in shutting down a joint venture that amounted to about 588 million Euros for several weeks in 2012. The subsidiary firm recently won rights to explore new blocks in the southern area of the Central African state.
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