Drilling in one of the greatest carbon sinks on the planet could release greenhouse gases equivalent to Japan’s annual emissions, experts warn

The world’s largest tropical peatlands could be destroyed if plans go ahead to drill for oil under the Congo basin, according to an investigation that suggests draining the area would release the same amount of carbon dioxide as Japan emits annually.

Preserving the Congo’s Cuvette Centrale peatlands, which are the size of England and store 30bn tonnes of carbon, is “absolutely essential” if there is any hope of meeting Paris climate agreement goals, scientists warn.

However, this jungle is now the latest frontier for oil exploration, according to an investigation by Global Witness and the European Investigative Collaborations network that questions claims by developers that the oil deposit could contain 359m barrels of oil.

The Cuvette Centrale forms part of the Congo basin, which is the world’s second largest tropical forest and one of the most remote areas in the world. This untouched region is waterlogged for most of the year and is an important habitat for endangered forest elephants and lowland gorillas.

In 2017 it made headlines after scientists announced the discovery of 145,500 sq km (56,200 sq miles) of peatlands. They estimated it stored the equivalent of three years of global fossil fuel emissions, making it one of the greatest carbon sinks on the planet, according to a paper published in the journal Nature.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Congo basin, which is the world’s second largest tropical forest, spans six countries, including Congo-Brazzaville. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney/Greenpeace

But in August 2019, a Congolese company called Petroleum Exploration and Production Africa (Pepa) announced there were hundreds of millions of barrels of oil under the Cuvette Centrale. Exploiting this resource would quadruple the country’s oil production and sort out its debt-ridden finances, the company claimed.

In a televised speech a few days later, Congo-Brazzaville’s president, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, said the oil fields would not destroy the peatlands because they were on the periphery of drilling sites and added that he had “no intention” of ducking the obligation to protect the habitat. Environment minister Arlette Soudan-Nonault reinforced the message, telling Le Monde that drilling was “not in the peat bogs”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A scientist at work in a remote part of Congo-Brazzaville that is thought to contain billions of tonnes of peat. Photograph: Simon Lewis/University of Leeds

However, according to the investigation, the environmental assessment that looked at the impact of the drilling in 2013 was written a year before the discovery of the peatlands in 2014. The head of Pepa told the Guardian an environmental impact study that was validated by the ministry of the environment was carried out before recent exploration work.

Two of the four potential underground reservoirs are directly under carbon-rich peatlands, according to analysis of publicly available data from researchers at the University of Leeds.

Global Witness says it believes the proposed Ngoki oil block contains 6,000 sq km of peatland. Using data from the University of Leeds’ online resource CongoPeat, the organisation estimates that draining this section of peatland alone could release 1.34 gigatonnes of carbon – the same as the total annual emissions of Japan.

Prof Simon Lewis, who led the UK-Congolese research team that found the peatlands, says preserving them is “absolutely essential in terms of meeting Paris agreement commitments”. An influx of people to the region would also increase hunting, road building and further exploitation, he said. “There are huge amounts of carbon and biodiversity, and this should be one of the regions where we have different development pathways that don’t lead to the destruction of the natural world. If it’s not here in Congo, where is it possible? There’s a real opportunity here to do something different and much better.”

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The Ngoki oil project is being spearheaded by Congolese oil baron Claude Wilfrid “Willy” Etoka, who is the 10th richest man in francophone Africa, believed to be worth more than $500m (£388m). He is chairman of Pepa as well as the company’s major shareholder. Etoka claims the scheme will not damage the environment and told the Guardian the Ngoki project is “far from the peatlands”.

“Compared to coastal oil operations, which can produce traces of marine pollution, oil exploration in the Cuvette presents no risk of environmental disturbance … The president of the Republic of the Congo, who is in charge of protecting the Congo basin, would not have authorised us to explore for oil there if there was any evidence of such risks,” he said.

Soudan-Nonault also told the Guardian the Ngoki permit was located “on the edge and outside” of the peatland area.

Oil industry experts say proclamations of vast oil reserves have been exaggerated and, after looking at seismic surveys, Total and Shell rejected offers to invest in Ngoki in 2015. A senior source at Shell said seismic surveys showed the oil deposits were probably “modest” and “given the surface risk and operational challenges in this area, the ‘size of the prize’ would have to be very substantial”.

Critics say the exploration done so far – a 2D seismic survey and one exploratory well in 2019 – are not sufficient to work out the size of the oil reservoir. A geologist chartered with the Geological Society of London who looked at the seismic survey described it as “very basic” and said “there could be nothing of significance”. Pepa claims that a large well was discovered during drilling.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scientists are working to identify tropical peatlands in the Congo basin, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: Kevin McElvaney/Greenpeace

Francis Perrin, a senior research fellow with an expertise in oil and gas at the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques says Pepa’s claims that the Ngoki oil project could produce 900,000 barrels a day are “ridiculous”.

“Serious international companies will not invest in this project until Pepa can put their findings on the table,” he said. “It’s not enough to have one survey – you have to do multiple surveys and that can take months or years, depending on the size of the discovery.”

Etoka told the Guardian the size of the oil discovery was based on “objectively verifiable data”. He added: “Production tests will tell us a little more in days to come. We are continuing to keep a low profile while awaiting confirmation.” President Sassou-Nguesso declined to comment.

Colin Robertson, a campaigner from Global Witness who worked on the investigation, said: “The vast amounts of carbon stored in Congo basin’s peatland forests means they are of global importance in the fight against climate change. These are the one of the last places on Earth that extracting more fossil fuels should be considered. Any responsible investor should rule this out.”