Oil exploration permit violates law

Oil exploration permit violates law
eKantipur, 28-Jul-08

The government has not followed the constitutional process while signing agreement with international companies for exploration and production of petroleum in the tarai, experts said here on Monday.

Speaking during a national workshop on "Petroleum Exploration and Legal Compliance", jointly organized by Nepal Bar Association (NBA) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) the experts said the agreement made by the government are not in compliance with the existing laws.

The government has recently signed agreement for petroleum exploration and production with two international companies -- Texona Resources Company and Cairn Energy -- but has kept the agreements confidential.

"The agreements should not be kept confidential according to the 1990 Constitution as well as the present Interim Constitution 2007," said Bishwa Kanta Mainali, senior advocate and president of NBA.

Similarly, the petroleum agreements should meet the requirements of environment protection with a compulsory legal provision for Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) before the companies are granted the exploration rights, he said.

"However, there has been no evidence of EIA being followed by the government," Mainali said.

According to him, though regulation 10 (1) of Petroleum Regulations, 1985, has stated that a bidder shall not be granted more than two exploration blocks for the petroleum exploration, government has licensed five of the 10 blocks to Cairn Energy.

Meantime, speaking during the workshop, Anil Manandhar, country representative of WWF said, "The provision on environmental protection under the petroleum agreement seems inadequate."