Cambodia 'set to probe for oil' despite environment worries
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia is set to begin searching for oil around the vast Tonle Sap lake, reports said Friday, despite concerns about potential environmental damage.
A regulatory body, The Tonle Sap Basin Authority, has been established to coordinate "studies for oil exploration" with private firms, said Tao Seng Hour, who will head up the organisation.
"We will make sure that there is no pollution from exploration," he told the English-language Cambodia Daily.
But some observers have cautioned against the move, saying it could damage the fragile ecosystems found around the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.
No estimates have been released about how much black gold could lie underground in the Tonle basin, a 16,000-square-kilometre (6,200-square-mile) ring surrounding the great lake, but its presence is thought likely.
In 1997 the lake and surrounding floodplain -- home to endangered wildlife -- were designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, although natural resource extraction was still permitted.
But Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he opposes designating the area a World Heritage Site, saying such protected status would hinder any fuel exploration there.
The new regulatory body will include ministers, oil officials and members of the Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor temples.
Cambodia has been gripped by oil fever since the US energy giant Chevron discovered undersea reserves off the country's southern coast in 2005.
Hundreds of millions of barrels of oil are thought to lie off-shore, raising hopes that it could help pull Cambodia out of poverty.
Several foreign oil companies have negotiatied with Cambodia over exploration rights. Production is expected to start by 2010.
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Cambodia is set to begin searching for oil around the vast Tonle Sap lake, reports said Friday, despite concerns about potential environmental damage.
A regulatory body, The Tonle Sap Basin Authority, has been established to coordinate "studies for oil exploration" with private firms, said Tao Seng Hour, who will head up the organisation.
"We will make sure that there is no pollution from exploration," he told the English-language Cambodia Daily.
But some observers have cautioned against the move, saying it could damage the fragile ecosystems found around the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.
No estimates have been released about how much black gold could lie underground in the Tonle basin, a 16,000-square-kilometre (6,200-square-mile) ring surrounding the great lake, but its presence is thought likely.
In 1997 the lake and surrounding floodplain -- home to endangered wildlife -- were designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, although natural resource extraction was still permitted.
But Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has said he opposes designating the area a World Heritage Site, saying such protected status would hinder any fuel exploration there.
The new regulatory body will include ministers, oil officials and members of the Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor temples.
Cambodia has been gripped by oil fever since the US energy giant Chevron discovered undersea reserves off the country's southern coast in 2005.
Hundreds of millions of barrels of oil are thought to lie off-shore, raising hopes that it could help pull Cambodia out of poverty.
Several foreign oil companies have negotiatied with Cambodia over exploration rights. Production is expected to start by 2010.
9 comments:
Hell, if we worried about everything, we'll never get out of poverty.
Go, go, go, don't let any paranoid idiot keep us in poverty.
Here is how stupid Hor Nam Hong and stupid Hun Sen need to do for solving the border agreement with Vietcong and Thaicong as Honduras and Nicaragua did in the UN court. Not just doing secretely with Hanoi and Thaicong. These treaties that Hun Sen and Sihamony did with the Hanoi are all illigal document:
"The U.N.'s highest court Monday granted Honduras sovereignty over four Caribbean islands in its decades-old dispute with Nicaragua, and carved up rich fishing grounds and offshore exploration concessions for oil and gas." from Yahoo News under Latin American.
After Pol Pot regime, Cambodia lost alot of human resource. After Hun Sen regime, Cambodia will lose all natural resources and land.
There are no Khmer laws that can stop these Vietcong slave mother fuckers from committing crime against Khmer people but one thing that Khmer people can do that is to hold all these mother fucker Vietcong slaves accountable for their criminal behavior!
Remember! AH Tao Seng Hour will be hold accountable for any criminal behavior for polluting Tonle Sap lake environment under Cambodia law!
Hey, you can't get out of poverty without pollute something a little. You get the oil up, you'll spill some and it get washed away in to the ocean via the mekong, or you'll end up burn it up in an engine and pollute the air. So you see, it is either the ocean or the air. How can one be better than the other?
Oh great! There you go again! Tonle Sap Lake is a source of food for 80 percent Khmer population and to destroy the source of food in the name of progress is like committing suicide! Many of these pollutions will remain for generation to come!
Now go kill yourself in the name of progress!
This Tao Seng Huor is so corrupted, and then, He want to talk about environment. He was with the FUNCINPEC, He has done nothing goods for the party. Then a lots of people want his head, and then, He go to CPP. Bribery is equal Tao Seng Huor! I guess that Ranariddh has received some too with this man.
This guy Tao Seng Huor must learn how to sratch his arse first before making such a monumental promise...
Don't worry, 3:44, if you have money, you don't need food from Tonle Sap, which is not easily damage because of the yearly tide keep everything fresh and clean.
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