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Oil
expansion in paradise
How
you can help to stop an ecologic, economic and social
disaster in Costa Rica.
How did this all get started?
The search for "black gold" in Costa Rica
is nothing new, leading to few results in the past.
Starting again in 1997, the Costa Rican government began
looking for foreign investors in its oil reserves, when
President José María Figueres was on board.
The country had been divided into 22 blocks wich were
posted for bids to foreign oil companies. In 1998, the
government of Miguel Angel Rodriguez granted concessions
or contracts to MKJ-Explorations of Louisiana to explore
and eventually exploit oil in four blocks located within
the Costa Rican Atlantic coastal area, totalling 5.634
square kilometers. Later, 80% of the concession weas
sold to Harken Energy Corporation of Texas, which currently
does most of its oil drilling in Colombia.
Pressure for new sources of oil from the current U.S.
presidential administration, whose ties to the oil industry
go far back and deep, have helped fuel such developments.
Let’s not forget that this new liberalization
of Oil resources in our country responds to a change
in the Hydrocarbons Law, that was made in 1994, as a
Structural Adjustent Programme condition. The new text
was “suggested” for the Central American
region by a consultancy made by the World Bank in the
early 90’s.
Resistance movement
Strong resistance from local communities along the
Caribean of Costa Rica who would be directly affected
by oil exploitation made the government and oil companies
stop their efforts to exploit the natural resources
of this world renowned tropical paradise. The communities
and some ecologist & environmental organizations,
a great deal of environmental lawyers, as well as many
individuals, united in platforms like ADELA (Accion
de Lucha Antipetrolera) and Oilwatch Costa Rica (national
chapter of Oilwatch International). After two years
and a half of intensive organizing and campaigning (from
October 1999 until march 2002) the company was not able
to obtain its environmental license from the respective
government agency (SETENA- National Technical Environmental
Secretariat). This happened on march 2002.
Local opposition to this latest oil exploration plan
in Costa Rica has come from a wide variety of local
development and tourism associations, small agricultural
growers, fishermen's groups, NGOs, and other community
groups, who feared the disastrous impact of this oil
exploration on their lives and livelihoods. They formed
a coalition called ADELA (Accion de Lucha Antipetrolera
-Action of Anti-Petroleum Struggle-) and organized to
oppose the government and oil companies' efforts. ADELA
filed a lawsuit with the Costa Rica Supreme Constitutional
Court claiming that the government had violated the
local population's rights to prior consultation and
participation in the process, which succeeded in blocking
oil exploration in the indigenous reserves, but allowed
the company to continue its exploration efforts in offshore
drilling near the ports of Limon and Moin. The group
received international support for its struggle, including
an independent assessment on Harken’s Environmental
Impact Study, that revealed serious flaws in that study.
This was finaly resolved with the denial of the environmental
license, due to the inability of Harken to demonstrate
through their EIA that their activity was viable from
an environmental and social point of view. The EIA was
not approved, and oil drilling in the Costa Rican Caribean
was declared not environmentaly viable.
What was (or still is) at stake?
Costa Rica is renowned worldwide for its rich biodiversity
in both the rainforests and marine coastal areas, with
numerous endangered and endemic species not found anywhere
else in the world. The Caribean region is home to numerous
indigenous peoples and other cultural groups, whose
livelihoods of fishing and eco-tourism would be greatly
threatened by oil exploration. Costa Rica also has an
image worldwide of a strong commitment to protecting
this biodiversity through national parks, wildlife refuges
and indigenous reserves as part of a model of sustainable
development, as well as its participation in international
covenants and treaties on the environment and indigenous
peoples.
Climate Change
These international agreements such as the 1992 Declaration
of Rio about the environment and development, and the
Convention on Climatic Change in 1993 and its Kyoto
Protocol in 1997 call for the stabilization of the global
climate through the reduction of its fuel combustion.
The Kyoto Protocol commits all governments to reduce
their emissions by 5.7% in relationship to what they
emitted in 1990. Some of the main countries that consume
the most fuel such as the United States, Australia and
Japan, refused to implement this measure. Furthermore,
global discussions of the dangers of global warming
have made clear the need to reduce fuel combustion and
emissions Governments that signed the Convention on
Climatic Change, including Costa Rica, should be investing
their resources in search of new forms of production
and consumption of energy that do not affect the environment
and the health of people.
Who is harken anyway?
The company has been a lot on the news since the year
2000, during the ultimately successful campaign of George
W. Bush as President of the USA. For many years he was
a major investor, employee and CEO of Harken. This connection
is just one of many of Bush's close ties to the oil
industry, which was evident in his recent energy plan
that calls for more exploration and exploitation of
nonrenewable energy resources such as oil, thus creating
a global backdrop for the struggle over oil exploration
in Costa Rica.
According to the New York Times, Times, and other US
publications in 2002, while W. Bush was the company’s
CEO, there were irregularities in the financial reports,
as well as an exaggeration of the company’s property,
usually no profit reported, and there was also tax evasion.
It also has had local claims in Texas for the pollution
of some farms in their gas operations. These have become
legal battles in court, but the legislation does not
allow to judge these cases of pollution.
Harken operates in the North Caribbean of Colombia,
since the early 90’s. This was the first country
it expanded to outside the US. Its interests have led
it to defend the funding of Plan Colombia at the US
Congress, as one of the stakeholders in the oil operations
in that country, considered a matter of “national
security” by the U.S foreign policy. The expansion
of Harken to Colombia has to do with an old friendship
between Ernesto Samper and George W Bush, when one was
President of Colombia and the other was governor of
Texas.
On the other side, most of Bush’s scandals related
to his oily past have to do with Harken. As Harken’s
CEO, he managed to close an important deal in Bahrein,
winning over other very big corporations.
George Bush father was the President of the U.S then.
In 1994, one week before the Persian Gulf War started,
W. Bush got rid of all his shares and sold them at regular
prices. When the war exploded, Harken’s shares
went down fastly, but W Bush was out of sight already.
He could have been charged with criminal accusations,
due to the fact of withholding key information from
the stakeholders and using it only for his personal
benefit.
There is another important scandal related to Harken.
The bankrupcy of the BCAE , a huge money laundring machine
that operated from Miami and Europe. The bank held the
accounts for various oil corporations, but went bankrupt,
thus unleashing a huge scandal that resulted in a Congress
Comission to investigate the links between this bank
and some major companies and politicians, as well as
money laundring and CIA operations.
We realize that in our Costa Rica, during the administration
of their concession, Harken passed the rights from one
company name to another, never had a stable public office,
and did not do a serious job in preparing and presenting
the EIA. It was never clear who we were facing to or
who we had to dialogue with, since there was never a
stable representation of the company in our country.
Harken has currently plans to expand to Panama, Costa
Rica, Nicaragua, and Belize. This is public, we still
don’t know wherelse it is expanding or plans to
expand.
Links
www.savebiogems.org/talamanca/
www.ifaw.org/page.asp?id=1014
iucn.org/places/orma/mesoamer.htm
www.elaw.org/campaigns/campaignDetail.
asp?profile_id=495
www.globalresponse.org/success.html
www.environmentaldefense.org/home.cfm
www.aida2.org/english/projects/prjtalamanca.php
www.cccturtle.org/n_stopped-cr-oil.htm
www.grupoadela.org
Press release
Oil blackmail: a peak of what we can expect from cafta
OCTOBER 1ST, 2003. As if it were a joke, the Costa
Rican government qualified Harken Energy’s intention
of demanding the Costa Rican government for 57.000 million
us dollars, via an international arbitration through
the International Center for the Solution of Investment
Differences. This is an Institute that is part of the
World Bank, and has it’s headquarters in Washington
DC., USA.
For Oilwatch Costa Rica ecologists, one of the groups
that promotes the anti-oil campaign, “this outraging
demand is one story that will become everyday business
when transnational corporations consolidate their rights
through the Free Trade Agreements that are being negotiated
currently, like CAFTA and FTAA, among others. We know
that the principles of compensation in the investment
chapters on these Free Trade agreements are completely
unproportional in the relationship State- Coorporation”,
said Alicia Casas, Oilwatch Costa Rica member.
The company violated the contract when it was not able
to get the environmental permit for operating. We consider
there is no case in this demand, it seems more like
a big blackmail and a way of getting public attention
from the anti-independence sectors in Costa Rica and
the US”.
Fabian Pacheco, from Oilwatch/AESO (Social Ecology Association),
said “Costa Rica has legally applied the contract,
and Harken has not met the requirements with the mediocre
Environmental Impact Asessment that it presented. If
this company would have wanted to continue the due process,
they would have claimed a contentious case against the
technical decision of SETENA”.
In fact, many of the anti-independence sectors had
been heating their engines to support this demand, and
make it look like this is the result of a romantic,
nonrealistic decision from the government. For Mauricio
Alvarez, spokesperson of Oilwatch/AESO “this is
not an isolated blackmail, nor does it fall on cold
ground. Some weeks ago, some of these sectors have been
insisting, through tabloids about the inadecuate anti-oil
position of the government. These conservative sectors
cannot see the visionary character of the Costa Rican
President’s decision. For them, getting rid of
the oil threat, as it happened with the army some years
ago, is a decision that directly affects their business
and interests.” Alvarez also said “since
we started monitoring the oil activity and this company’s
historial, we have realized how speculative this business
is. Harken Energy, renamed Global Energy for offshore
purposes since 2001, has interest or concessions from
Colombia up to Belize, through the whole Caribean coast
of this region, and is determined to make Costa Rica
become part of this geopolitical strategy, which is
to take over a large and important territory and make
the region become an important part of its transnational
business. Harken has been linked in the past to George
W. Bush, and according to the New York Times, and other
US newspapers in 2002, while he was the company’s
CEO, there were irregularities in the financial reports,
as well as an exaggeration of the company’s property,
usually no profit reported, and there was also tax evasion.
We realize that in our country, during the administration
of their concession, Harken passed the rights from one
company name to another, never had a stable public office,
and did not do a serious job in preparing and presenting
the EIA”.
Oil blackmail continues
OCTOBER 4th, 2003. Harken Costa Rica Holding’s
threat has vanished as quickly as its demand was not
viable. This company, property of Global Energy, has
decided to withdraw its claim for $57.000 million dollars
against the Costa Rican Government. This claim was submitted
for consideration on april at the ICSCD. This happens
precisely when the discussion about CAFTA and its consequences
is taking place in Costa Rica, and when the United States
is insisting on the liberalization of two of it’s
favorite businesses: oil and telecommunications.
About this new development of events, when consulted
by the press, Dr. Abel Pacheco, President of Costa Rica,
stated “Yes, we are looking for private investment,
but who said we were bidding our natural patrimony?
Harken is now asking “only” it’s invested-already
money, which sums (estimated only by the company so
far) up to US$15 million. Mauricio Alvarez, Oilwatch
Costa Rica spokesperson, was satisfied with the news,
and pointed that “this clearly indicates the lack
of jurisdictional basis that the company act on”.
The Costa Rican Government studied and analyzed the
case, and concluded that the company had no legal basis
for this claim, because it had not followed the contract
procedures, when it could not demonstrate the environmental
viability of the project.
Mauricio Alarez also warned that this anouncement made
by the company may be part of it’s strategy, because
now they have something to negotiate with, since “they
have stepped back in one of their claims, which was
the international arbitration. This arbitration had
no future, it was a trick made up for the only purpose
of generating pressure on the government and get what
they wanted: their supposed investment back”.
This is not the first time that Harken plays these
tricks. We remember when a legal claim won by the communities
made it resign to the portions of indigenous reserve
that where inside the contract, or develop a community
consultation, and they used this news to make it look
like an act of good will. On that ocassion, they stated
“we are resigning to these portions of the concession
to improve the relationship with the communities”,
not recognizing that it was the Supreme Court that ordered
this disposition.
About the compensation, it will be a very interesting
process, and we will be able to know how when the company
signed an Investment Plan with the former government,
the total expected investment was about US$3 million,
and now their are talking about US$15 million. “We
have around 12 million doubts” Mauricio Alvares
said. “The company reported a lower amount of
investment in order to pay a very cheap 10% environmental
insurance (a total of US$30 000)” continues.
For Oilwatch Costa Rica, to talk about compensation,
we would have to start by saying that the simple fact
of Declaring a Territory Free of Oil Exploration and
Exploitation, in the middle of an oil-addict model,
is an uncuantifiable act in monetary terms. According
to the company’s data, we would have to substract
300 thousand barrels a day from the daily fossil fuel
emissions to the atmosphere. These are effective CO2
emission reductions, that can make a difference regarding
climate change. Institutions and different mechanisms
that exist to fight back climate change should recognize
the value of this reality. We would have to quantify
how much profit has Harken already made by speculating
about their concessions, thus obtaining good stock sales.
They sold their stock up to $14usd. When “the
market” realized that Costa Rica was not going
forward, and that there was a successfull campaign demanding
Harken to forget their purpose in this country, the
stock fell to the floor (from $14 to 2$) . This clearly
meaning that Harken has valued and speculated on it’s
oil reserve discoveries in order to get a higher value
for their shares.
Ten things you can do to stop
harken’s plan s in mesoamerica
1 Gather all the info you can about Harken Energy (Global
Energy), its US operations, its links to Bush and other
petropoliticians (Toricelli, etc). Redistribute this
info, send copies to the local resistance movements
and communities in Costa Rica.
2 Carry out information activities for the environmental
and human rights movement, as well as the general public.
Videos, meetings, speeches, newsletters, workshops,
emails, etc.
3 Organize public actions at Harken’s offices.
Write letters to Harken’s CEO, and encourage others
to do so. Let Harken know that you are aware of what
it plans for all Mesoamerica, and that you and many
others are willing to prevent this from happening.
4 Articulate and link this campaign with all the other
oil resistance campaigns that you are involved with
or that you know of. Help affected communities get in
touch with each other.
5 Send a letter of support to the Costa Rican President,
Abel Pacheco. Do not forget to send a copy to the local
movement.
6 Visit the affected communities in Costa Rica, Panama,
Nicaragua, Belize. This will give you a clear idea of
what’s up with oil concessions. Also it will relate
you directly and personally to the affected people,
and the resistance movement
7 Produce your own material, to redistribute the information
according to your organization’s or movement’s
specific affinity.
8 Donate some money to the movement, or fundraise for
the cause. This, for US, or Mesoamerican activities.
Not as important as all the rest, it never hurts to
have some financial support
9 Link this campaign to the “Free Trade and Oil
Expansion” issue. It’s crucial that different
sectors and stakeholders realize the real effects of
Trade Liberalization, the concrete situations we are
faced to with CAFTA, FTAA, etc.
10 Protest to your own government for encouraging oil
companies to look for new oil reserves everywhere, specially
out of the Middle East. Protest Oil Expansion as the
Climate enemy #1.
Contacts
More information:
ADELA: adelatala@racsa.co.cr
OILWATCH – AESO
Spanish: Mauricio Álvarez (506) 2241556,
3869145, oilwatch@feconcr.org;
English: Alicia Casas (506) 225 39 83,
casasali@hotmail.com
Letters to the Company:
Global Energy
580 Westlake Park Blvd Suite 600
Houston TX 77079
2815044000
Harken Costa Rica Holdings, LLC
4415 Shores Dr, STE 223
Metairie, LA 70006-6811
Ph: (504) 456-2632
Fax: 504) 885-8339
Letters to Costarican Government:
Abel Pacheco de la Espriella
Presidente de la República
Apdo: 520-2010, Zapote
San José, Costa Rica
Fax: (506) 253 9078
presidente@casapres.go.cr
www.cosmovisiones.com/adela
www.grupoasdela.org
OILWATCH – AESO
Phone: (506) 2241556, 3869145, 225 39 83,
oilwatch@feconcr.org
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