Dear Presidents of friendly brother countries;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of the Government and of the Chadian People and on my behalf, I welcome you and express to you our great joy that we are able to receive you in Chad.

Your presence in Komé at this exceptional event is a mark of great sympathy and of high consideration for us and for our country. We thank you warmly.

Dear Brother Presidents;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

On October 18, 2000, we came to Komé for the official launch of the biggest oil project undertaken on the African continent.

Here we are three years later, at this same site in Komé, to officially celebrate the end of construction.

This 10th of October 2003, a day that we have been looking forward to for so long, is historic because it commemorates the successful culmination and crowning achievement of a long drawn out struggle.

Therefore, at this solemn moment, my thoughts go to those who, through their perseverance and their courage, made possible the discovery, development and sale of hydrocarbons from the Chadian soil, going back to the drilling of the first Miandoum well in 1969 up to the present day.

I would particularly like to thank my colleagues, all the Chadians and the expatriates, whatever their titles, whose technical and intellectual contributions were of great value in completing this huge project.

I have my heart set on thanking very sincerely the president of the World Bank, the president of the European Investment Bank and their partners, the members of the consortium, Exxon, Petronas and Chevron, the Chadian patriots who are members of political parties and of civil society, and all those who personally did not spare any effort, regardless of the difficulties, to support our work and help finish construction ahead of the deadline.

May all of them find here the expression of our gratitude.

As for the Chadian and Cameroonian people, whose daily life was affected by the scale and the impacts of the operations along the pipeline route, I express to them my sympathy, and I pay tribute to them for their patience, their calm and their understanding throughout the process.

The development of the crude oil will benefit the entire Chadian nation. However, the residents of the oil area will specifically benefit from it, notably through the regional development plan.

This being said, I’m not forgetting those who opposed us and who in the end did not always share our preoccupation with making the development of the Chadian oil a success, with respect for the environment and a fair sharing of the oil revenues in a way that is beneficial to everyone.

In all conscience, out of love and faithfulness to our people, with no external pressure, we freely made the decision to manage the oil revenues in a scrupulous and transparent way, through the law relating to the management of the oil revenues. This law is unique, one of a kind.

This law creates a committee of control and surveillance over the oil revenues to which men and women are appointed by civil society (human rights, religious, trade unions) and by the government.

What we are doing will go down in the history books. We can be proud of it because we believe this approach will help strengthen the struggle against the endemic poverty which weighs heavily on the Chadian people.

Dear Brother Presidents;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The development of the Chadian oil, which we are celebrating today, must be considered only in the context of all the efforts which have been made up until now to lift Chad out of its under-development.

With his in mind, the oil development will contribute to establishing national infrastructures, accelerating rural development, modernizing agriculture and herding and increasing their outputs, promoting national companies, ensuring the good functioning and the performance of the government, guaranteeing the social well-being of our people, in short, enabling at last the socio-economical takeoff of Chad while offering the chance of a decent life to future generations.

Using the opportunity of this gathering and the solemnity of the moment, I would like to emphasize once more that although the oil will generate important financial revenues and will reinforce our development actions, it will in no way replace agriculture and livestock breeding.

The agricultural-woodland-pastoral sector remains and will remain the essential basis of our national economy. In order to achieve this, I urge farmers and livestock breeders not to allow themselves to be dazzled and deceived by the lure of the black gold. There is a saying, one cannot drink or eat oil.

As a consequence, it is out of the question for Chadian farmers and breeders to give up their work because the oil is here.

Dear Brother Presidents;

Distinguished Guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Chad in the oil era will not be able to live in isolation.

On the contrary we have to take advantage of this new economic situation to strengthen our relationships with our neighbor and brother countries, Cameroon in particular.

This is the moment to express our gratitude to my dear brother and friend, Paul Biya, to his government and to our brothers, the Cameroonian people.

Their support and their determination, by our side, and across our two states, which are more united than ever, allowed us to complete this gigantic oil project, a shared accomplishment and the pride of our two countries.

The Chadian oil will serve peace in Chad, peace with our neighbors, with the rest of Africa and the rest of the world. It will enable Chad, the hub of the continent, to finally play its role as a link and an instrument of dialogue between various regions of the continent.

Regarding precisely our relations with friendly countries and various development partners, I reaffirm that Chad in the oil era will strengthen its bonds of partnership with them and will be more open to their investments.

Finally turning towards you, my fellow citizens generally and those in the oil area in particular, I say that this Chadian oil must be a source of harmony and reconciliation between the sons and the daughters of Chad.

Because we suffered from the horrors of civil war and from the crimes of dictatorship in the past, development forces us to transcend all subjective thinking in the national interest.

I would like to finish by congratulating and thanking the Organization Committee of this ceremony, the leaders and the personnel of the National Coordination of the oil project, the various partners, operators and workers of the Komé, Bolobo and Miandoum work sites, for the quality of the work accomplished for the preparation and the organization of this ceremony.

Despite the constraints, deprivations and difficulties of all kinds due to the lack of technical and other resources when the work started here, all these people gave the best of themselves and they fulfilled their tasks honourably.

Also, I would like to ask for the indulgence and the understanding of our illustrious guests for any inconveniences or problems they may have experienced when they arrived and throughout the festivities.

Wishing you a good ceremony, I officially declare open the valve of the Doba crude oil.

Thank you.