----- Original Message ----- From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 6:11 PM Subject: [CrashList] Colombia, oil RESOURCE CENTER OF THE AMERICAS www.americas.org February 2001 Oil Rigged There's something slippery about the U.S. drug war in Colombia -------------------------------- By Thad Dunning and Leslie Wirpsa The public face of U.S. policy toward Colombia has long been the war on drugs. Colombia, according to widely reported CIA estimates, produces 90 percent of the U.S. cocaine supply and 65 percent of U.S. heroin imports. U.S. officials say the aim of Plan Colombia, a $1.3 billion aid package signed by President Clinton last year, is fighting "narco-guerrillas" and eradicating coca crops. But thats just part of the agenda. Plan Colombia is also about oil. Colombias petroleum production today rivals Kuwaits on the eve of the Gulf War. The United States imports more oil from Colombia and its neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador than from all Persian Gulf countries combined. And, last June, Colombia announced its largest oil discovery since the 1980s. The Colombian government and transnational oil companies are eager to secure their exploration and production activities with U.S. military might. Some U.S. military officials harbor no illusions about their role in Colombia. Stan Goff, a former U.S. Special Forces intelligence sergeant, retired in 1996 from the unit that trains Colombian anti-narcotics battalions. Plan Colombias purpose is defending the operations of Occidental, British Petroleum and Texas Petroleum and securing control of future Colombian fields, said Goff, quoted in October by the Bogot daily El Espectador. The main interest of the United States is oil. Colombias two major guerrilla groups condemn foreign control of the nations petroleum even as they rely on the oil companies for ransoms and extortion payments. The guerrillas face competition from rightist death squads known as paramilitaries, many with documented links to Bogots army and some with alleged ties to the oil firms. In recent months, the violence has begun to spread beyond the nations borders. To the south, the Colombian war is further destabilizing Ecuador, a country wracked for decades by political upheaval, including a military coup during an indigenous revolt a year ago. To the north, the war is heightening tensions in Venezuela, where populist President Hugo Chvez has helped drive up world oil prices by reviving the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Critics of U.S. policy in Colombia have likened it to past interventions in Vietnam and El Salvador. But with world oil prices stuck at all-time highs, with U.S. oil consumption expected to rise 25 percent over the next two decades, and with Middle East producers increasingly unreliable, another important comparison is the U.S. war against Iraq. One question is whether U.S. military aid will help keep the Colombian oil flowingwhether it will enhance or erode the security of oil operations. More troubling questions surround the human cost of further militarizing a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Colombians and displaced almost 2 million since 1985. Black gold ---------- Colombias known oil reserves amount to 2.6 billion barrels, far fewer than those of the worlds major oil powers. But only about 20 percent of the countrys potential oil regions have been explored, due to the violence. Desperate for more investment, President Andrs Pastranas administration sweetened the terms a year ago, allowing foreign companies more of the profit from Colombian oil operations. As a result, the states Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (Ecopetrol) awarded a record 13 new exploration and production contracts last year. Colombias biggest foreign investor is BP Amoco, formed when British Petroleum merged with Chicago-based Amoco in 1998. The London-based giant controls Colombias largest oilfield, a 1.5-billion-barrel trove called Cusiana-Cupiagua in the northeastern province of Casanare (see MAP). A 444-mile pipeline called Ocensa carries BP Amoco oil to the Caribbean port of Coveas for export. Los Angelesbased Occidental Petroleum helps operate the nations second-largest oilfield, Cao Limn, holding 1 billion barrels in Arauca, a province just north of Casanare. Occidental pumps away its share through a 485-mile duct to Coveas. The June announcement confirmed a deposit about 55 miles southwest of Bogot. An international consortium led by Canadian Occidental Petroleum expects as much as 300 million barrels from the oilfield, called Boquern, making it the nations third-largest deposit. Other major investors in Colombian oil have included Exxon, Shell and Elf Aquitane. The transnationals have helped boost the nations oil production almost 80 percent over the last decade. Most of the exports have gone to the United States, putting Colombia among the top eight U.S. oil suppliers. Many of these companies have led the fight for U.S. military aid to Colombia, the worlds third-largest recipient of U.S. security assistance. In 1996, BP Amoco and Occidental joined Enron Corporation, a Houston-based energy firm, and other corporations to form the U.S.-Colombia Business Partnership. Since then, backed by hefty oil-industry donations to political candidates, the partnership has lobbied hard for increased aid. Lawrence P. Meriage, Occidentals public-affairs vice president, not only pushed for Plan Colombia last year but urged a House subcommittee to extend military aid to the nations north to augment security for oil development operations. The firms have allies in the U.S. national-security apparatus. In 1998, Gen. Charles Wilhelm, then head of the U.S. Southern Command, told Congress that oil discoveries had increased Colombias strategic importance. Last April, Sen. Bob Graham (D-Florida) and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft warned in a Los Angeles Times editorial that Colombias reserves would remain untapped unless stability is restored. Petroleum companies say their presence in Colombia creates employment alternatives for coca farmers, adds muscle to counterinsurgency efforts and, ultimately, promotes peace and stability. In 1996, British Petroleum, Occidental and Royal Dutch/Shell co-sponsored a full-page ad about Colombia in the Houston Chronicle, touting a powerful new weapon . . . in the war against drugs. The ad pictured the nozzle of a gas pump. Petroviolence ------------- Numerous studies suggest that transnational extraction of natural resources from the Third World promotes not economic and political stability, but violence and lawlessness. From Indonesia to Nigeria to Colombia, mining and oil drilling have spurred the growth of rightist militias, criminal gangs and leftist insurgencies. Political scientists call this the resource curse. Since 1986, according to Colombian government sources, the countrys guerrilla groups have bombed oil pipelines more than 1,000 times and have kidnapped hundreds of oil-company executives and employees. Using these operations as leverage, the guerrillas have generated roughly $140 million per year in ransoms and extortion payments. They also squeeze taxes from local contractors working for the companies. In all, the oil revenue rivals conservative estimates of guerrilla earnings from the cocaine and heroin trades. <end of excerpt> _______________________________________________ CrashList website: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
