Vaslui Civil Society and local media released the following statement at the beginning of an information campaign by Chevron in Gagesti: “Chevron maintains its promise to cooperate with the local communities and to explain the benefits of shale gas. As part of this promise, Chevron Romania is continuing the information campaign in the local communities of Gagesti, Pungesti, Bacesti and Puiesti in order to answer the questions regarding the exploration activities it wants to make in Vaslui County. This is a part of an information program that Chevron conducted in the area since February 2013 and which included meetings to present the projects and public debates.”
This is a continuation of what was said in Pungesti and Bacesti in the context of a July survey made by the National Agency for Mineral Resources conducted in Vaslui County. Results showed over 60% are poorly informed regarding unconventional resources (shale gas) and regarding exploration and exploitation activities, advantages and disadvantages.
30 lobbyists representing Chevron began door-to-door campaigns in all villages in the Gagesti commune. When villagers from Giurcani were made aware, they gathered and sent the lobbyists away. They went to the next village, Tupilati, where they were sent away as well. The villagers refused to confirm whether or not they were informed with regards to shale gas benefits and are asking Chevron to leave their commune.
“They will surely come again, but we will not let them. The people from Gagesti do not want to hear about Chevron and their bore and because they refuse to talk, the lobbyists throw the fliers over the fence, write down the number of the house and say they have done their job, to inform… the chickens maybe because they may read what they throw. We do not want to deal with them nor with Chevron,” said a villager from Tupilati for Vremea Noua.
The validity of the information campaign is questioned by one of the the country's most active NGOs, Romania without Them, represented by George Epurescu who explained that Chevron is trying to buy-off people from local communities, as evidenced by the Christmas gifts containing advertising materials “that hid the truth about the dangers of hydraulic fracking.”
According to law that implements the Aarhus Convention, an information campaign is done before the project is started and must have a debate stage when the community can say no to the project, and in this case, the project is stopped. This process was not followed and documents used by Chevron were illegal, obtained by questionable means, said Epurescu. An example is that of the fence demolished on December 7th, a fence that was illegally built because it was only on December 17th that talks were held to grant the environmental permit for its construction. Epurescu claims that all Chevron’s actions are a string of illegalities forced by the US representatives on the Romanian government.
