On September 11, 2024, an X account, @AfricanHub_ , created for promotion of African heritage, posted a video showing an excavator digging a trench with a claim that says crude oil has been discovered in Burkina Faso.
The X user posted the video with a caption that read:
“Oil has been discovered in Burkina Faso. Your comments on this.”
The post has been circulated widely on the X platform. As of September 29, it has garnered over 900,000 views, more than 2,000 reposts, plus 7,000 likes and over 1,400 comments.
CLAIM
Video shows crude oil discovered in Burkina Faso recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by TheFactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING as the video depicts wastewater pipe under repair in the state of Minnesota, United States.
When our researcher subjected the keyframes of the video to a Google Reverse Image search, the results showed an earlier version of the video posted by McClure Plumbing and Heating Inc. on its Facebook page in December 2023.
The caption on the post read:
“We wish that was oil! We replaced this sewer this past week that was packed full of tree roots and had 4 patches in the 6’ clay pipping. It went well and we were all backfilled by about 12:30 p.m!”
McClure Plumbing and Heating Inc. is a Minnesota-based company in the United States of America (USA) that offers services such as faucet installation or complete sewer line replacement.
However, TheFactCheckHub would later find out that several media organisations had earlier debunked the viral video.
AFP fact-check had first debunked the claim on January 18, 2024 by contacting McClure Plumbing and Heating Inc. on January 15.
“The company confirmed that it is not oil but a wastewater pipe repaired near its premises based in Luverne in the state of Minnesota,” AFP reports.
Similarly, France 24, an international media platform, reported that it is “…is a Minnesotan sewage pipe.”
FasoCheck, a media platform promoting Fact-Checking in Burkina Faso, also reported in French that the “video does not show an oil discovery in Burkina Faso.”
In addition, the International Trade Administration, reported that Burkina Faso does not have its own oil production. According to the report, fuel is imported to run many types of machinery, from transportation engines to power generation plants in the West African country.
THE VERDICT
The claim that crude oil was discovered in Burkina Faso is MISLEADING; the video depicts repair of wastewater pipe in Minnesota, USA.
