Maureen Lorenzetti
OGJ Online
WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 11 --Some US oil companies are worried Washington policymakers are neglecting Middle East tensions, which they say could jeopardize the industry's sizeable investments in Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations.
Oil industry sources Monday said lobbyists recently met with staff members of US Vice-Pres. Dick Cheney to discuss their concerns.
"We're worried the White House is being told by some of their advisors that the president should be only focused on domestic issues right now," said an industry source with long ties to the region. "But if the Middle East becomes more unstable, that will cause problems back home sooner than later."
At least one US company with ties to the region has decided that the time has passed for quiet lobbying on the volatile Middle East peace question.
Speaking before the National Council on US-Arab Relations, J. Brooks Buxton, president of Conoco Arabia Inc., Monday said attempts by the Bush administration and its allies to let the Palestinians and Israelis broker their own peace accord have been a waste of time.
"There has been of rash of ill-conceived summits that have satisfied various national, political, economic, and social egos," Buxton said.
He added, "Never in my more than 40 years of experience and 6 1/2 years in the Middle East have I seen the influence or involvement of US policymakers at such a nadir. It's a policy vacuum that is both tragic and destabilizing."
Conoco executives, led by Chairman and CEO Archie Dunham, have a long history of speaking out on often controversial public policy issues.
For example, Dunham and his senior executives have often protested the use of economic sanctions to punish foreign countries in conflict with US policy goals.
Conoco in 1995 was forced to give up a lucrative gas concession off Iran because of sanctions the Clinton administration imposed with the support of Capitol Hill.
Dunham has made it clear he has not forgiven nor forgotten that action.
Administration officials insist that oil companies -- including more than just Conoco -- are jumping to conclusions about the possibility that their Middle East investments may be compromised because some Arab nations see the Bush administration as being too supportive of Israel.
And at least one key ally, Saudi Arabia, reiterates that it is a reliable exporter to Western markets, showing no willingness to repeat the oil embargos of the 1970s that caused high prices and gasoline shortages in the US.
These comments have done little to soothe nervous US oil executives.
"International oil companies have been willing to take up the challenge of the Saudi natural gas initiative and to commit to serious long-term investment. It behooves the US government to also meet concerns of Crown Prince Abdullah halfway and reengage US political leadership in the region before it damages this strategic alliance," said Buxton.
Conoco is one of several US majors helping the Saudi government leverage its massive gas reserves into new infrastructure projects designed to add value to its production and to create jobs.
A ceremony was held in the kingdom's port city of Jeddah to celebrate the gas deals, estimated to be worth $25 billion. However, negotiations are not expected to be completed until yearend.
ExxonMobil Corp., the kingdom's largest single foreign investor, won the lion's share of the contracts, although Conoco, Occidental Petroleum Corp., and Marathon Oil Co. have won interests.
An ExxonMobil official who spoke at the same meeting carefully avoided speculation on how recent Middle East violence may affect his company's future business in the Kingdom.
Daniel Nelson, CEO of ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia Inc., was more optimistic, although he acknowledged the challenges US companies face in meeting the expectations of their shareholders and the Saudis.
"The outlook for investors in the Middle East is on the threshold of a major transformation," he said. "The Saudis have the natural resources and political will to create conditions for success. Will it be easy? I can assure you absolutely not. It will be very, very difficult. We have critical public policy considerations intersecting with private and public investment."
And yet, Nelson suggested that at least for his company, the ebbs and flows of Middle East politics would not dramatically affect ExxonMobil's longstanding relationship with the kingdom.
He said his company has been in the kingdom "a long, long time and we are confident in our ability to work there and their ability to work with us. It [the gas initiative] is a long term proposition consistent with our 50 years to date, and we plan to be there at least 50 years into the future."
Contact Maureen Lorenzetti at [email protected]
