Ce qui se cache sous terre

An investigation by Global Witness, Der Spiegel, and Mediapart reveals that the Ngoki oil project in the Republic of the Congo is linked to the family of President Sassou-Nguesso and businessman Claude Wilfrid Etoka, whose bank accounts were closed by BNP Paribas due to corruption risks. The report argues that the project's environmental impact assessments are obsolete and fail to account for the presence of carbon-rich peatlands, which could store 1.34 gigatonnes of carbon in the Ngoki block alone. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the announced oil reserves of 359 million barrels may be economically unviable, as major firms like Shell and Total previously rejected the project based on seismic data.

• The Ngoki oil project is linked to a network of corruption involving the family of President Sassou-Nguesso and businessman Claude Wilfrid Etoka. Etoka, the chairman of Petroleum Exploration and Production Africa (PEPA), is a close associate of the president's son, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso. Furthermore, BNP Paribas closed Etoka's accounts in 2015 because they were identified as a high corruption risk due to his close ties to the president's wife and a lack of transparency in how the state oil company (SNPC) selected his firm, SARPD Oil, as an intermediary.
• Environmental impact assessments for the Ngoki project are fundamentally flawed and unusable. The study used for drilling projects was based on data from 2013, predating the 2014 scientific discovery of the Congo Basin's tropical peatlands. Consequently, the assessment contains no analysis of the risks that drilling activities pose to these peatlands.
• Despite government claims that the Ngoki project is not located on peatlands, analysis indicates the block could contain over 6,000 square kilometers of carbon-rich peatlands. These areas are estimated to hold 1.34 gigatonnes of carbon, an amount exceeding the annual emissions of Japan. Drilling in these zones could lead to peat destruction, oil spills, and deforestation via the construction of roads and pipelines.
• The announced oil reserves at Ngoki—claimed to be 359 million barrels—are likely exaggerated and may not be economically viable. Internal documents show that Shell and Total rejected investment opportunities in the project in 2015 after reviewing seismic results, with Shell noting that the potential deposits were likely of 'modest size' relative to the high operational risks of the area.
• The Central Africa Forest Initiative (CAFI), funded by Norway, France, Germany, and the EU, provides insufficient protection for peatlands. The 65 million dollar agreement signed in 2019 does not exclude oil extraction; instead, it only commits the Republic of the Congo to producing guidelines and a 'special legal status' for peatlands by 2025, which the report suggests is too late to prevent destruction.

APA

Global Witness (n.d.). Ce qui se cache sous terre. https://globalwitness.org/fr/campaigns/forests/ce-qui-se-cache-sous-terre/

Chicago

Global Witness. Ce qui se cache sous terre. n.d. https://globalwitness.org/fr/campaigns/forests/ce-qui-se-cache-sous-terre/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=Ce qui se cache sous terre |url=https://globalwitness.org/fr/campaigns/forests/ce-qui-se-cache-sous-terre/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitnessndqui, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{Ce qui se cache sous terre}}, institution = {Global Witness}, url = {https://globalwitness.org/fr/campaigns/forests/ce-qui-se-cache-sous-terre/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }