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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @04:07PM
The survival of the species is less important than the survival of the biosphere, and humanity is overrated to begin with. In fact, I would go so far as to say that genocide is a perfectly reasonable and aesthetically agreaable response to such things as this. It's just less viable against the West than against the DRC. Pity we can't offer these places nuclear power as an alternative without our leaders fantasizing about proliferation concerns.