Oil rigs threaten biodiversity and compromise the well-being of coastal and Indigenous communities
Originally published on Global Voices
Offshore platform from Garand-Batanga Beach, Kribi South region of Cameroon. Photo by Leocadia Bongben. Used with permission.
This story by Leocadia Bongben was produced with the support of Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.
Dede Sluk, 35, a father of three, sits pensively in front of his plank house, fishing nets hanging at the corner, wondering how to fish for his family and prepare his children for school. Sluk lives in the village of Grand-Batanga 2 in Kribi, in southern Cameroon. Like many fishermen there, Sluk is annoyed by the lack of access to fish beyond the offshore platforms. He states,
We don’t have access to areas with high fish stock; the Battaillon D’intervention Rapid (BIR), a special army unit guarding the petroleum platform, prohibits passage.
According to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (EITI) 2023 report, oil and gas contributed FCFA 774.51 billion (USD 1.3 million) to Cameroon’s budget. However, these oil rigs threaten biodiversity and compromise the well-being of coastal and Indigenous communities.
Offshore oil and gas platforms are massive marine structures used to explore, drill, extract, and process petroleum and natural gas from rocky layers beneath the ocean floor; some require the laying of pipes. The yellow flames and smoke from the Ebome Marine Terminal, a petroleum rig operated by Perenco and SNH west of Grand Batanga, are visible 6.5 kilometers (4.04 miles) from the Kribi coastline.
Two other platforms are the Sanaga 2 offshore facility around Kribi, connected via undersea pipelines from onshore in Bipaga. West of the Kribi Port is the Kome-Kribi 1 Terminal (FSO), built in 2003, operated by Cameroon Oil Transport Company — the Chad-Cameroon pipeline. Meanwhile, the Hilli Episeyo, operated by Golar LNG, Perenco, and the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH), departed in July 2026, after eight years.
Among the platforms of concern are those operated by Perenco, a Franco-British company and a prominent player in the oil and gas sector, tagged as an opaque multinational by Friends of the Earth for oil spills, wastewater discharges, gas flaring, and old pipelines crossing rivers. An Info Congo investigation indicted Perenco for flaring and environmental hazards, endangering the coastal ecosystem and the health of local communities.
Tar balls found in a marine protected area, dolphin and whale strandings, and fish scarcity are hidden costs of offshore oil and gas exploitation, which seems to stall Cameroon’s progress towards the 30×30 marine target under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Fish scarcity linked to petroleum platforms
Laure Ndingue, 50, a mother of five who worked as a fish roaster along Grand Batanga beach for over 10 years, knows that, opposite her charcoal braise, an oil and gas platform sits in the ocean. She recalls,
Growing up, six barfish were sold for FCFA 500 (USD 0.85); the price jumped to FCFA 1,000 (USD 1.70) and now is FCFA 5000 (USD 8.54) per kilogram. Even frozen fish is now expensive. Before, we were not suffering; fish stocks have declined.
Petroleum exploitation is done when the platform is planted on a rock, and most times, the rocks are marine ecosystems that breed fish. Now, the rocks are occupied by offshore installations, contributing to reduced fish stocks, explains Divine Francois Xavier Mbunje, a fisherman, geologist, and president of the 150-fishermen union at the Grand Batanga beach.
He suggests the government can demarcate platforms and areas of high fish concentration. About a kilometer or two from the beach, there is no fish, and three kilometers deep, we can have around forty kilograms of fish. Sluk proposes that oil and gas platforms should help the local population with activities like fish farming, loans to make up for the fish scarcity, recommending that the government provide a loan scheme and subsidize the purchase of motorized equipment, as this will help the fishers go further into the ocean.
He estimates the required nylon fishing gear for a fisherman at FCFA 1 million (USD 1,720) and FCFA 1,500,000 (USD 2,572) for an engine. Sluk explains,
Motorised gear will help us fish towards Ntem, Lokonje, and Douala away from the offshore platforms. We now rely on crabs to feed the family, with fish becoming rare.
Smelly, oily nets and tar balls
Early in 2026, fishermen reported oil on their nets smelling like crude. “I was fishing and witnessed this strange phenomenon, which lasted for more than three weeks and gradually disappeared,” says Ebodje Emile, a fisherman in Ebodje village, where the marine protected area is situated, 50 kilometers (31.1 miles) from Kribi. Leon Kisito Bekwale, who has fished for about 35 years, still has nets his fishermen used, colored by oil. Still looking worried, he turns the nets dumped at the corner of the house to reveal the dark, oily parts.
Leon Kisito holding oily nets in Ebodje, Cameroon. Photo by Leocadia Bongben. Used with permission.
“I don’t know if this is linked to the offshore gas and oil,” Bekwale says, explaining that the wooden local boats only go for about three kilometers, suggesting the substance was inside the marine protected area, far from the petroleum platforms. Fishermen reported the phenomenon to the park conservator and NGOs.
A Perenco spokesperson told Global Voices via email:
We are not aware of any issues in the field across our sites, whether at the Northern or Southern sites. The comment may be referring to the northern coast of Cameroon, bordering Nigeria, where we have witnessed oil slicks drifting from Nigeria to Cameroon over recent years (possibly related to tanker discharge of oily waste or activities in Nigerian oil fields). This does not relate to any Perenco activity. Cameroon security forces are patrolling our sites and have also not reported any incidents.
Dr Jean Kenfack, focal point for seas and oceans at the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development, MINEPDED, also doubts the incident, outlining the procedure to inform the ministry of the incident: “In case of an incident, the departmental delegate sends the information to the ministry. In case of a spillage, an inspection mission is deployed to identify the author for sanctions if confirmed, and there is a pumping station in Kribi managed by the ministry with SNH and the Marines.”
Meanwhile, marine biologist Joel Wanba, Megafauna Officer at Tube Awu in Ebodje, who links the oily substance to activities along the coast, says, “But we do not have the means to analyze the substance given the small NGO budget; it is difficult to conduct such research.
Tar balls linked to offshore platforms form when crude oil spills into water. They are frequent along the coast and in the Manyange Na Elombo Campo marine protected area”, says Wamba. “This area is noted for sea turtles that may mistake tar balls for food, leading to indigestion and death. When we see residues, it indicates a malfunction. Contaminants build up in fish and other marine life over time when exposed to polluted water. When we eat contaminated fish, those toxins build up in our own bodies too, ” Wanba states. By obstructing sunlight, hurting living tissue, and harming the surrounding ocean environment, oil and gas spills damage seagrass beds and coral reefs, he adds.
Tar-Balls-in-Ebodje-Kribi-Cameroon by Leocadia Bongben. Used with permission.
Tube Awu surveyed eight sites using bioindicators (living plants, animals, and microbes whose presence or absence suggests environmental health), which were not found at all sites, revealing an unhealthy environment and dying corals, according to Wamba.
Whales and dolphins stranding
The African Marine Mammal Organization (AMCO), Cedric Fogwan, a marine biologist, reveals how offshore exploitation affects marine biodiversity. “Offshore exploitation impacts mostly whales, dolphins, and marine turtles, as their activities disrupt animal freedom. The sharks and whales no longer have any space for their nesting activity and the possibility of feeding on coral reefs,” he states. “Whales and dolphins that live in shallow waters use echolocation to communicate. Offshore activities’ noise interferes with echolocation behavior, leading to strandings — whales or dolphins washing up on the shore — because they are disoriented and lose direction getting to areas too shallow for them to survive or get entangled in a net they couldn’t locate,” Fogwan says.
Experts say installing pipes destroys coral balance, the most important marine biodiversity habitats that support animals like dolphins, sharks, turtles, and whales. Consequently, platforms reduce bottom diversity, killing everything underneath when the structure is placed over their habitat. However, for those platforms that stay for only a short time, the ecosystem can restore itself, Fogwan states.
Citing model nations like the Seychelles and Zanzibar Island, growing tourism based on the conservation of their natural resources, he laments that development is frequently perceived as building harbors and exploiting oil, activities that are not sustainable.
Management of marine environmental hazards
MINEPDED oversees environmental protection, including offshore exploitation. The Petroleum Code and the Abidjan Convention set out rules to combat marine pollution in West and Central Africa, while SNH oversees the National Oil Spillage Contingency Plan. Cameroon adopted its National Environmental Management Plan (NEMP) in 1996, which incorporates pollution control, risk mitigation, and environmental impact assessments (EIAs) before starting development projects. However, it is not clear how regulations are respected.
According to J. Folack, a researcher at IRAD RHSM, budgetary constraints, a lack of target-oriented research, and competing responsibilities of the ministries involved in coastal zone management hinder NEMP implementation.
MINEPDED's yearly inspections verify if environmental impact studies on potential hazards are updated, and semester environmental management plans for offshore platforms are checked for grey areas; however, the results are not public.
“With demarcation and good fishing gear, we can get enough to feed our families, and sell some to change our standard of living,” Sluk concludes.
Fisherman with a wooden boat at Ebodje Beach in Cameroon. Photo by Leocadia Bongben. Used with permission.
