The new natural gas project from Senegal feels threatened by fishing communities

Guet Ndar: It is impossible to remember the gas platform from the coast of North Senegal. Its flare burns day by day over rolling breakers.A joint venture between the natural gas project, British energy giant BP and US-based Cosmos Energy, began operations on the last day of 2024. This is to bring jobs to the densely populated fishing community of Guet NDAR, outside the old colonial capital of St. Louis.The gas extraction plant, deepest in Africa, is aimed at helping to change Senegal’s stable economy after a decade before the discovery of oil and gas away from the country’s coast. The first offshore oil project also started last year.Fishermen say the project is killing their livelihood One of the few remaining vendors once rich in the rich fish market, Maryam Sow said the decline began in 2020 when the stage began to grow from the sea.“This market used to be full every day,” Bo said, pointing to the barren. The nearby beach is now occupied by hundreds of unused boats.Fishing in coastal Senegal is central for life. According to the US Department of Agriculture, it employs more than 600,000 people. According to the think tank Chautham House, the country exported about half a billion fish in 2022, citing international trade data. What about the gas project? Grand torture Ahmim Project Plan to extract gas from Senegal and neighboring Mauritania. According to BP, the region can produce 2.3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas every year.Last year, Senegal selected President Basiro Dyamay Fay, who fled to an anti -establishment stage. He promised to maximize the country’s natural resources, in which he said what he said to improper contracts with foreign firms and distributed revenue to the population. He said at his first address, “I will proceed with the disclosure of effective ownership of extractive companies (and) with audit of mining, oil and gas sector.” It was not clear whether the contract revolving efforts had started, or whether they would include the gas project.The fishermen of Guet NDAR say that the benefits promised by both the project and the government of Senegal have not been physicized. The cost of living is high, and a major cooking source in Senegal is still increasing the price of natural gas. Low gas prices were a major sales point for the gas project.Mohammad Sow, a shopkeeper at Dakar, said that his customers have complained that the 12-liter gas canister has gone from 5,000 CFA (USD 8.50) to 8,000 CFA (USD13.80) in the last few years.“This price is impossible,” he said.Senegal’s government did not respond to the requests of the comment.The fishing community near the project says it has seen more signs of trouble. A leak that took weeks to fix Soon after the production of the gas project started, the fishermen said they saw a large number of bubbles in the sea. BP cited a temporary gas leak that “had no immediate effect on the ongoing production activities from the remaining wells.” It took weeks to fix the leaks. BP did not say how much gas – roughly leaked into the methane – the sea, or the new project caused so quickly to leak.In response to written questions, BP stated that “the environmental impact of release was evaluated as negligible” looking at the “low rate” of release.However, the environment charity greenpeace, how important the effects of such spreads on the environment are important.A statement said, “The GTA region is the home of the world’s largest deepening coral reef, a unique ecosystem. A single spill can eradicate marine biodiversity for decades, can contaminate food chains and destroy the habitat.”To help sit outside a BP-built and branded fish refrigeration unit, Mamadou Sir, president of the Union of St. Louis fishermen, talked about concerns.Sir said that the fish has become more rare because they are attracted to the stage and are away from many rocks that the people of the Guet NDAR had fish for centuries.Drawing in the sand, he explained how fish, fish drawn by project lights and underwater support structures, no longer visit their old “houses”. The areas around the platforms are off-lymph for fishermen.Sir also said that there is an artificial rock that BP is creating lies in the path of ships that regularly visit the structures, keeping the fish away. Life of a fisherman A fisherman, Abdou, showed his grip in the sea after two days: two untouched boxes filled with fish, each about the size of an oil drum. A fish box receives 15,000 CFA, or USD 26.Prior to the gas project, he said, he will get four or five boxes in a two -day journey. Now, receiving two is a win.This spoils the problem already created by overfing by foreign vessels.BP insisted that such issues are having face-to-face talks with community members, and community-interacting projects such as microfinance and professional training programs in the region have been noted.Sir said that despite his promises, the government failed to consider its community when agreed to the gas project.“This is our land and sea, why don’t we get a voice?” He asked.He and others irony expressed that the refrigeration unit sitting next to him could not be opened. The key “is somewhere in Dakar” said Sir, and the local people said that they have never seen inside it.