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Seismic tests in Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest wildlife reserve which is famed for its mountain gorillas, have confirmed the presence of oil, the Congolese government said Friday.
Tests carried out by British oil company Soco had returned "positive" on the presence of oil deposits, Minister of Hydrocarbons Aime Ngoy Mukena told AFP by telephone.
On the question of "whether there is an oil field" underneath the park, the study answered "yes", he said, without giving further details.
The announcement was likely to reignite a heated debate within DRC over the merits of exploring for oil in the vast park, which covers some 7,800 square kilometres (3,010 square miles) of lush forest, glaciated peaks and savannah in the restive eastern province of North Kivu.
The UNESCO world heritage site reopened to tourists last year after being closed for two years because of militia violence in the region. UNESCO has warned several times that any exploration for oil in the park would be "incompatible" with its heritage status.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:25AM
If things from the past hold true POTUS will soon find a bunch of terrorists that need to be wiped out so that freedom can once again ring across the oil fields ...
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday November 08 2015, @11:50AM
"They're the black people who triggered our whole Amuricn civil war thing... GET 'EM!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @03:45PM
black lives don't matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:52PM
... unless they are white and covered in oil.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @07:37PM
What? They already are there. Boko Haram. Or just say Ebola is there, so everyone out so the place can be sterilized with a new techinique that coincidentally happens to involve drilling oil.
There is already a bunch of oil problems in Africa. This is just more of that same problem. The solution always has been to bribe tribal leaders with free upholstered furniture and a small house up to western standards, and give that to the leader of the tribe. They are easily bought.
Then promise jobs to all of the people, which will get a few menial labor jobs. Any wildlife they can kill can be used to supplement their meager incomes. Mostly, educated white people will be imported in to work on the stuff, but after a while the drills are pretty automated. The only real people needed aside from a few eggheads are the ones that will fruitlessly try to diminish the amount of fuel theft; they'll be corrupt themselves, but they will be the sorts that allow some petty crimes in exchange for petty corrupt rewards. No real problems that can't be addressed.
The oil spills and lack of effort to prevent widespread damage, well, with so few educated people there, the blame will go on to all of those people that were promised to be hired, and they wont be trusted anymore and everyone fired, they'll resort to more theft, and all the water will be oily and everyone will live in a metal corrugated style of shanty town to house all of the unemployed and poisoned people. Then more guys with guns will be brought in, who won't tolerate as much petty crime anymore because their own corruption costs more--these guys are the ones that are going to kill people that get out of line, as opposed to pretend to be their friends.
I am just repeating what I've read has happened in other areas. Sounds like this will be worse though since it's supposed to be safe place.
Sometimes, the wildlife looks best as dinner or mounted on the wall in the dentist office when you need something to stare at during the routine cleanings. This will simply follow the same pattern.