afrol News, 6 June - A worldwide campaign to stop seismic exploration offshore Western Sahara is noting successes. After making a Norwegian company not renewing its contract to map the oil resources in the Moroccan-occupied territory, other seismic companies now confirm they will not take the political risk of working in this disputed area.

The campaign originally started when the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara was shocked by finding that the Norwegian seismic mapping company TGS-Nopec had been sub-contracted by Kerr-McGee and Total (earlier TotalFinaElf), which in turn have a controversial contract with the Moroccan government to explore the sea floor of Western Sahara for possible oil deposits. The UN, in a "legal opinion" had questioned the legality of operations with the aim of exploiting natural resources in the occupied territory.

After an intensive campaign and strong pressure from the Committee, the exiled Saharawi government, the Norwegian government and share holders in TGS-Nopec, the company earlier this year finally gave in and promised not to renew its contact with Total and Kerr-McGee to finalise the seismic explorations. A widened campaign thus started.

Last month, the Committee sent an open letter to 51 seismic exploration companies worldwide, informing them of the "political risks" involved in the territory. It was made clear that companies exploring offshore Western Sahara would become targets of negative campaigning and publicity.

- Until now, the campaign has been a great success, Ronny Hansen, Coordinator of the Norwegian committee tells afrol News. The Norwegian and international press has shown much interest in the campaign and several seismic companies have already declared that they assess the political risks of working offshore Western Sahara too high.

The seismic exploration company Multiwave commented to the daily 'Stavanger Aftenblad' it didn't "want to risk something comparable" to the campaign against TGS-Nopec. Therefore, and due to the desire to "maintains high ethic standards," Multiwave ruled out the possibilities of getting engaged in operations offshore Sahara.

Also, Norway's leading seismic exploration company, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), declared to the daily 'Klassekampen' it did not have any intentions of operating in Western Sahara. Norway, an oil nation, is one of the world's leading countries in seismic explorations.

Meanwhile, the campaign also has started showing an effect on the large multinational companies that are directly bound to the Rabat regime, Total and Kerr-McGee. The fund broker company Skagenfondene, which held 100.000 Kerr-McGee shares, in May decided to sell these shares, although it was losing an estimated US$ 2 million. Skagenfondene informed the sale was made for ethic reasons, referring to the Western Sahara situation.

The letter from the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara to the 51 international seismic companies - with a copy sent to Kerr-McGee, Total and the Moroccan state oil company (ONAREP) - had announced that companies getting involved in the disputed territory "should prepare for massive negative PR, shareholder sell-outs, and possible law-suits."

The Committee further reminded these companies of the successful campaign it had led against TGS-Nopec. A large number of share holders in the company had protested by selling off their shares, thus drastically lowering the value of the company.

By staff writers

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories