A recent article in Oil & Gas Journal illustrates that even a well-intentioned publication friendly to the petroleum industry can unwittingly serve the purposes of those hostile to industry operations (OGJ, Nov. 29, 1999, p. 18).
Like so many others, OGJ in that article adopted a term used by nongovernmental organization (NGO) activists to characterize the well site for the Gibraltar 1 wildcat that Occidental is planning to drill in the Samoré region of Colombia, near U'wa ancestral lands. The well site is not in the rain forest. The actual well site is in a developed area that is 11/2 miles off the national Saravena-Cucuta highway. This highway is the main commercial artery in that part of Colombia. The Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline runs parallel to this highway through the area.
The NGO activists have been claiming that this is a pristine rain forest area and OGJ, like many others, accepted that description without questioning it. The area is simply not rain forest by any definition of the term with which I am familiar (see sidebar, p. 30).
Furthermore, an environmental impact assessment of the proposed project site by a third party, required by Colombian regulation as a prerequisite for the government's granting of an environmental license, confirms this fact. The area has a rainy season and a dry season-which is very unlike the Oriente rain forest region in Ecuador, for example. The climate, soil, and vegetation are very different from that found in rain forest areas. The well site itself and the surrounding area are characterized by small family farms where the local farmers are engaged in raising crops and cattle. The well site is actually midway between the towns of Samoré and Gibraltar
Guerrilla influence
The real story of opposition to this wildcat, which was given short shrift in the OGJ article, is the opposition of the guerrillas-particularly the ELN (see related article, p. 32). Shortly after the environmental license was awarded to Oxy, Commander Manolo of the ELN issued a communique on Colombian television declaring the well site a "war zone" and threatened to attack Oxy's personnel and equipment.
When the U'wa moved onto the well site, the leader of the U'wa High Council, Roberto Perez, issued a memorandum stating that the landowners in the area could not sell their land to anyone but the U'wa. Subsequently, Oxy learned that the landowners were being coerced by the ELN to sell their land at the drill site to the U'wa. It is my understanding that the landowners have since sold their land to the U'wa for what amounts to $50,000-about 20% of what Oxy was offering to the landowners in compensation.
Redrawing maps
In expanding the size of the U'wa reservation, the Colombian government used a map that was provided to it by the U'wa. In 1993, the U'wa commissioned scholars (anthropologists and ethnologists) at Colombia's University of Javeriana to develop a territorial map delimiting the territory that the U'wa wanted to make part of their existing reservation. The U'wa themselves actively participated in drawing this map. This is the same map that the then-leader of the U'wa High Council, Roberto Cobaria, presented to me in April 1997 in Los Angeles.
Colombia's Minister of Environment, Juan Mayr, who negotiated the territorial agreement with the U'wa that was ratified in July 1999, was adamant in stating that the government agreed to granting the U'wa every hectare of land that was designated on that map. For the U'wa and their international NGO supporters to say now that the U'wa's territorial desires were not met and that the U'wa had territorial claims beyond the expanded reservation is totally dishonest. The old reservation for the U'wa, who number 3,582 in 707 families (according to Colombian government statistics), was about 268 sq miles; the expanded reservation is 850 sq miles, or over 3 times the size of the original reservation.
Other stakeholders
It is also important to note that there are other stakeholders in the area who are neither U'wa nor guerrillas but who would like to see this project go forward because it will create new jobs for this economically hard-pressed region.
Moreover, if Oxy makes a commercial discovery, the local municipalities would be eligible to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and royalties.
One final note is worth emphasizing. The region in which the well site is located is experiencing explosive growth in the cultivation of coca and heroin poppies. The active participation of leftist guerillas, particularly the FARC, in Colombia's drug trade to finance their attacks upon government authority is an enormously complicating factor in the region.
The guerrillas and the drug cartels obviously don't want oil development to move forward in the Samore area because it would result in a greater presence of central government authority in a region that is now almost totally controlled by subversive groups.
The Author
Larry Meriage is Occidental Exploration & Production Co. executive vice-president for executive services and public affairs.
