The Boston Globe Online
Bombings cut into Colombian oil flow
=========================
By Kirk Semple, Globe Correspondent, 9/17/2000
BOGOTA - When rebel dynamite blew a hole in Colombia's
second-largest petroleum pipeline on July 23, oil
officials here
did not think much about it. After all, this was a typical
rebel
protest against what the insurgents regard as excessive
multinational presence in the oil sector.
But that explosion turned out to be the beginning of the
longest
sustained bombing blitz against the Cano Limon-Covenas
pipeline since it was built in 1986.
In the past eight weeks, the leftist National Liberation
Army has
punctured the line at least 23 times and has paralyzed the
operations at the Cano Limon wellfield, which is operated
by
Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum. The line was
attacked
again Tuesday, and the pipeline remained out of service
until
late Thursday.
Before the bombardment began, the line carried about
110,000
barrels a day of crude from the Cano Limon field in
northeastern
Colombia to the Caribbean port of Covenas for export to
the
United States and other countries.
At a time of soaring fuel prices, when oil-producing
countries
might be smiling as their coffers overflow, the rebel
bombing
blitz has unleashed new worry in Colombia. The attacks
have
deprived the government of hundreds of millions of dollars
in
revenue - and eroded business confidence, challenging
President Andres Pastrana's efforts to boost foreign
investment
in the oil business.
''The security issue is very negative for companies doing
business in Colombia,'' Alejandro Martinez, head of the
Colombian Petroleum Association, acknowledged Friday.
Colombia produces about 700,000 barrels per day - small by
comparison with the world's major oil powers but critical
to
Colombia's economy. Oil is this Andean nation's leading
legal
export, accounting for about 30 percent of foreign export
income, according to a spokesman for Ecopetrol, the
state-owned oil company.
Unless large new reserves are found soon, Colombia will
become a net importer of crude for the first time. The
National
Liberation Army, Colombia's second-largest rebel group
after
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has claimed
responsibility for the rash of attacks. The rebels say the
bombings are in part a response to Pastrana's $7.5
billion,
US-backed strategy to destroy the cocaine industry and
rebuild
the country's provincial economy and society.
Just before President Clinton's visit on Aug. 30, the
group
declared that foreign firms were ''looting and robbing''
petroleum.
But according to the army commander in the area where the
line
has suffered the most attacks, the bombings may be a show
of
strength in the midst of fledgling peace initiatives
between the
National Liberation Army and government representatives.
The
rebel group has been pushing the government to create a
demilitarized sanctuary in north-central Colombia as a
prerequisite for formal peace talks - similar to the
demands
made by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which
was given its own Switzerland-size safe zone and is now
involved in slow-moving talks with the government.
General Luis Fernando Barbosa said that the National
Liberation
Army has also dynamited the country's electricity towers
and
road blockades.
''It's absurd that they are meeting with diplomats,
talking about
peace, and at the same time destroying the country,''
Barbosa,
commander of the 18th Brigade in Arauca state, said
recently.
The Cano Limon-Covenas line, their principal target, has
been
hit about 700 times since it began operations in 1986. But
the
blitz is being described as unprecedented for its duration
and
ferocity. Occidental, with its on-site storage tanks full,
and with
no means by which to send its crude to the Covenas port or
to
Colombia's refineries, has been forced to turn off its
wells. In
addition, five ships that had been due to load crude from
the
field have been canceled or postponed, according to
officials at
Occidental and Ecopetrol.
The line has been out of action for 117 days this year,
because of
62 bomb attacks.
A spokesman at Occidental's headquarters in Los Angeles,
however, insisted that the wave of attacks has hurt the
Colombian community much more than it has hurt the
multinational firm.
''It will not have a material financial impact on
Occidental,'' said
Lawrence Meriage, Occidental's vice president for
communication and public affairs. ''About 85 cents on
every
dollar'' made from crude ''goes to the Colombian
community''
through royalties, state take, and taxes.
According to Alberto Calderon, president of Ecopetrol, the
country is suffering losses of about $900,000 per day in
royalties,
taxes, and state participation due to the interruption in
service
on the line.
The 420-mile-long line is extremely vulnerable because it
runs
mostly above ground, through sparsely populated
countryside,
in areas with high rebel presence and weak government
control.
The oil-rich Arauca state in northeast Colombia, where the
Cano
Limon field is located, is heavily disputed among the two
rebel
forces and the national army. Vast areas of the region are
under
strong rebel influence.
Despite a ''very good effort'' on the military's part to
ensure the
safety of multinational oil contractors in Colombia, the
guerrillas are able to cripple the nation's pipelines just
about
anytime they want, said Martinez of the Colombian
Petroleum
Association.
''All it takes is two guys to come along, put a bomb
underneath
the pipe, and that's it!''
The solution, he said, will lie in successful peace
negotiations
and a cease-fire.
This story ran on page A31 of the Boston Globe on
9/17/2000.
