[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 9, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H2126-H2127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 COLOMBIA AND OIL: GET IT WHILE YOU CAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration announced this week 
it will be sending to the Congress for approval the Colombia Free Trade 
Agreement. And the American people might ask, Colombia? Now? In 2008? 
What about the District of Columbia and getting gas prices lower here 
in our Nation's capital? Or what about more fairly priced student loans 
for the next generation who are attempting to improve their 
opportunities for the years ahead? Or what about dealing with mortgage 
foreclosures in the United States, which are at epidemic levels in 
places like Ohio and Michigan and Florida and California? No. The 
President sends us something to help another country. ``Colombia Free 
Trade,'' they call it.
  Well, I would like to say to the American people tear the veneer off 
the agreement and look below it, and what you will find is crude. Oil. 
What this agreement really is about is more imported petroleum from one 
of the most undemocratic places in the world.
  Colombia about 10 years ago was actually a net importer of oil. But 
today it is the fourth leading oil producer in South America. In fact, 
oil, rock/crude, has become Colombia's leading export product, and 
guess whom they send most of it to? You've got it right. The United 
States of America.
  So what this Colombia Free Trade deal is all about is more imported 
oil, more dirty crude, more carbon emissions, more dependency of the 
people of the United States for energy, more living back in the 20th 
Century than embracing the 21st with energy independence here at home.
  The oil picture in Colombia is clouded by rapidly declining 
production because of persistent attacks from people inside Colombia. 
What no one has mentioned, and the President didn't send it up here in 
his statement, is our country is already sending billions of dollars to 
Colombia to hold up the government. Why? To protect certain economic 
interests, including the rising export of petroleum.
  This is a graph showing production levels of petroleum in Colombia 
back since the late 1980s, then up through 2000, when all of a sudden 
they started to decline because of unrest inside the country itself.
  Now, it's no secret that there are 18 foreign oil companies in 
Colombia. Guess what. The majority of their headquarters is located 
right here in the United States. They have drilling operations in 
Colombia. California-based Occidental Petroleum launched an attempt to 
squeeze out of Colombia what oil remains with its discovery in 1983 of 
the Cano Limon field in the northeastern part of the country. The 
problem is that particular field produces less than a third of its 
total as recently as 4 years ago. Its production is going down.
  British Petroleum, not to be outdone, has been drilling in the 
eastern plains in the Andes Mountains in the largest field in the 
country. However, that production has fallen by about two-thirds, and 
rather than 400,000 barrels a day, they produce about 170,000 barrels.
  Faced with rapidly declining production, the Colombian Government has 
taken steps to improve the investment climate in Colombia and giving 
permission for foreign oil companies to own 100 percent stakes in oil 
ventures in Colombia. The Government of Colombia also established a 
lower sliding scale royalty fee, now at 8 percent on the smallest oil 
fields, and that set of actions have attracted an estimated $2 billion 
more in foreign investments since 2006. The oil industry is focusing 
heavily on this country.
  Entering into the picture is the geopolitical position of Colombia 
because if we look at the United States having nearly half of their 
exports, Venezuela is number two, and we all know the difficulties with 
Venezuela. So there's a little strategic problem here related to the 
U.S. perception across Latin America. But it's important to tear the 
veneer off something called ``Colombia Free Trade'' and look at what is 
actually being traded out of Colombia.
  While the United States continues to support the violent regime in 
Colombia, political unrest and political repression continue to cloud 
the discussion, and declining oil exports prove it. We can go back to 
1988 when a car bomb outside of Occidental's nine-story Colombian 
headquarters in Bogota badly damaged that building. In October, 2000, a 
truck bomb nearly missed a bus filled with 40 Occidental secretaries 
and other company employees. And in April, 2001, rebels seized a bus 
filled with 100 Occidental oil workers.
  Mr. Speaker, I'm going to include in the Record lots of information 
about Occidental Petroleum, which is just one example of what's 
happening in Colombia, and also some of Occidental Petroleum's 
political influence here in Washington, in the Congress and in the 
White House.

                    Occidental Petroleum Corporation

       Occidental Petroleum Corporation is one of the largest 
     U.S.-based oil and gas multinationals, with exploration 
     projects in three states and nine foreign countries, 
     including Colombia. It has operated in Colombia for more than 
     three decades; in 1983, Occidental discovered Cano Limon, 
     Colombia's second-largest oil field and one of only 50 
     billion-barrel-class fields in the world. Occidental's 
     investment in Cano Limon paid off long ago, with its share of 
     production yielding hundreds of millions of dollars annually. 
     Even through years of rebel attacks and pipeline closings, 
     Cano Limon Field continues to be a profitable venture for 
     Occidental.
       In recent years, Occidental has simplified its oil and gas 
     operations by focusing its operations in the United States, 
     the Middle East and Latin America. Despite drastic oil price 
     declines in 2001, Occidental Petroleum had its second-best 
     annual earnings ever.
       Annual sales: $14 billion
       Annual net income: $1.2 billion.
       CEO and annual executive salary: Ray Irani, $24 million 
     (six-year average); Forbes Magazine ranked Irani the second-
     worst among executives who gave shareholders the least return 
     on their investment compared with their own pay. In 2001, 
     Irani's compensation package included free financial 
     planning, country club dues and a $2.6 million bonus.
       Founded: 1920.
       Stock: Publicly traded (OXY) on the New York Stock 
     Exchange.
       Corporate headquarters: Los Angeles.
       Employees: 8,235.
       Colombia operations: Occidental owns Cano Limon Field in 
     the province of Aruaca,

[[Page H2127]]

     operates three exploration projects elsewhere in Colombia, 
     and, in 1998, swapped its holdings in the Philippines and 
     Malaysia for Shell Oil's interests in several producing 
     blocks of Colombia.
       Worldwide holdings: Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, 
     Qatar, Oman, Ecuador, the Gulf of Mexico, the United States 
     (Texas, California and Alaska).
       Worldwide reserves: 2.17 billion barrels of oil.
       Worldwide annual production: 461,000 barrels of oil per 
     day.
       Colombia annual production: 34,000 barrels of oil per day 
     in 2002, up 79 percent from the year before.


                            Labor Conditions

       In addition to sabotaging the physical structure of 
     Occidental's Cano Limon Pipeline, Colombia's rebel groups 
     have attacked, kidnapped and murdered company employees. 
     Employees also have often been caught in the crossfire 
     between the rebels and the military. Not unlike other 
     multinationals in Colombia, Occidental makes it clear with 
     its employees that it will not pay ransom in the event of 
     their kidnapping. With few exceptions, the company hires 
     Colombians from distant cities to work in the danger areas 
     because they are less likely to be knowledgeable about 
     military troop locations or security measures should they 
     fall into the hands of guerrillas. Prospective contractors 
     are rigorously screened by Occidental's psychologists to 
     ferret out spies; workers must show identification cards at a 
     half-dozen security checkpoints; and palm-reading devices 
     restrict access to executive offices. Still, Colombia's 
     rebels have succeeded in breaching the multinational's 
     security on a number of occasions.
       Watchdog groups have ranked Occidental poorly on human 
     rights after the company pursued a protested oil exploration 
     project in Colombia's cloud forest, home to 5,000 members of 
     the U'wa tribe. In 2000, three children were killed after 
     Occidental called on the military to break up a nonviolent 
     U'wa blockade of the road to the drill site. After years of 
     public pressure protesting Occidental's exploration on 
     ancestral lands, the company announced in May 2002 that it 
     was canceling the project. The company blamed its withdrawal 
     on technical and economic factors, but many believe 
     Occidental caved to negative publicity.
       Occidental's stand on human rights in Colombia was also 
     tainted after a 1998 air raid of the village of Santo Domingo 
     near the Cano Limon Pipeline. That year, three American 
     pilots of AirScan (a Florida-based security firm that 
     Occidental uses to protect its oil interests from rebel 
     attacks) marked hostile targets for the Colombian military in 
     an antiguerilla operation. The pilots' assistance mistakenly 
     led to the killing of 18 civilians, including nine children. 
     Survivors from the village said the aircraft (U.S.-donated) 
     attacked them as they ran out of their homes to a nearby road 
     with their hands in the air. The Colombian government is 
     still investigating.


            occidental influence on capitol hill not neutral

       Between 1996 and 2000, Occidental spent more than $8.6 
     million lobbying the U.S. government, including for U.S. 
     military aid to Colombia. In the 2000 election cycle, the 
     company gave hard and soft money totaling about $551,000, 
     with about 60 percent going to Republican candidates and 
     political action committees. The CEO of Occidental's chemical 
     subsidiary, J. Roger Hirl, raised more than $100,000 in 
     support of George W. Bush's bid for the presidency.
       Occidental also has maintained links to the Democratic 
     Party for many years, primarily through former Vice President 
     Al Gore's father, the late Al Gore Sr., who after leaving the 
     Senate took a $500,000-a-year job with an Occidental 
     subsidiary, then served on the company board for 28 years.
       When the younger Gore joined Clinton's ticket in 1992, 
     Occidental loaned the Presidential Inauguration Committee 
     $100,000 to help pay for the ceremony. And after Gore took 
     office, the company gave nearly $500,000 in soft money to 
     Democratic committees and causes. In late 1997, the former 
     vice president championed a $3.65 billion sale to Occidental 
     of the government's stake in Elk Hills Oil Field 
     (California), representing the largest privatization of 
     federal property in U.S. history. In 1998, when his father 
     died, Gore inherited about $500,000 worth of Occidental 
     stock.

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