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Oil's
Bloody Secrets in Ecuador and Bolivia (4)
Oil and GAS FIRE at a Repsol-Skanska field
By
Agneta Enström
Burning
Gas at a Repsol-Skanska field Swedish company Skanska’s
oil affairs in Latin America manifest a topsy-turvy logic and
crude practices resulting from neo-liberal globalization. Upon
a closer inspection of Skanska’s adventures in the global
South, a corporate identity emerges that is very different
from the one conveyed in its home market. Operations within
the oil industry are distantly removed from all legal, ethical
and ecological principles that Skanska has sworn to uphold
in its Code of Conduct and Corporate Policy.
Falsified
invoices, bribery scandals, extortion, environmental destruction
and serious violations of human rights are ethical
and legal infractions that Skanska has been associated with
in Latin America. Most recently, scandals have loomed ever
closer regarding primarily the company’s operations in
the controversial but economically lucrative gas and oil sector,
to cite the notorious “Skanska case” in Argentina
as one example.
In The Company of The Oil Mafia
Within
the multinational oil industry that operates in the southern
hemisphere, violations of human rights and environmental
laws are more the rule than the exception. Through their collaborations
with the major oil companies in the South, Skanska deserves
a closer look on this issue. Especially since some of the company’s
joint venture partners are notorious giants such as Exxon-Mobil,
ChevronTexaco, Total Fina Elf and BP-Amoco, along with several
other companies in the global oil industry, and whose operations
systematically violate human rights, create political uncertainty
and ecological disasters where they operate.
Skanska’s joint venture partner, Repsol-YPF, a Spanish-Argentinean
oil company, belongs to this group. According to Oilwatch,
their operations are some of the most criticized in the world
from a human rights and environmental standpoint [1]. Despite
that, Skanska works with Repsol-YPF in some of Latin America’s
most vulnerable regions (including the Amazon rainforest in
Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), which are characterized by vulnerable
ecosystems and where oil extraction is criticized and continually
met with strong local opposition [2]. Repsol-YPF is involved
in a number of legal cases involving crimes against both national
and international environmental laws, as well as human rights
and the rights of native populations.[3]
In Argentina
alone (where the company has the largest gas and oil fields
in the Mapuche people’s territories),
the company is the subject of at least four different legal
cases involving serious pollution and socio-cultural devastation.
However, even in Bolivia and Ecuador, in oil fields where they
have developed technical cooperation with Skanska, Repsol-YPF
is the subject of legal cases and criticism from native peoples,
human rights and environmental organizations.[4]
Calculated Double Standard
Dead cow
in oil spill in BoliviaIn Skanska’s own Code
of Conduct, it states that the company actively distances itself
from socially and ecologically destructive operations and on
their website one can read how they value “social responsibility” and
strive for “sustainable development.”[5] However,
entering into a partnership with the above-mentioned oil company,
when it comes right down to it, is choosing a complete different
side and taking a position for an operation that literally
walks over bodies for economic gain. The schizophrenic concept
that is Skanska’s recipe for success makes for bizarre
reading when comparing its actual practices to the ethics that
the company communicates in Sweden:
“We
continually strive to reduce our physical environmental impact.
We do this in
many ways. We develop tools that facilitate a project’s
daily environmental efforts,
intensify efforts to minimize energy consumption in buildings
and work for the safer
management of chemical products and the elimination of environmentally
destructive
substances.”[6]
Weapons and Bribes
The Yasuni
national park, a UNESCO-protected nature reserve and the
native territory of the Waorani people, is situated
in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. There, Skanska and Repsol-YPF
are operating under very controversial conditions, something
that organizations such as Oilwatch and Acción Ecológica
have highlighted. Together with the Waorani people, Oilwatch
has criticized how the companies’ violent advance is
taking place under the protection of military forces and private
security teams. Oilwatch’s book, “Atlas Amazónico”,
describes how the company has committed the most terrible violations
of human rights in the particular area of Yasuni (oil block
16) where Skanska has worked for a longer period of time with
Repsol-YPF.
When the
Swedish independent media group, Yelah.net [7], went undercover
to meet with Skanska’s regional manager in
the Ecuadorian Amazon, Milton Diaz, numerous times during 2006,
he confirmed the militarized situation that the oil industry
creates and in which Skanska actively participates. He explained
that Skanska also operates under military protection and that
private armed forces (read mercenaries and paramilitaries)
are essential to be able to operate in what he refers, disparagingly,
as “banana republics.”
In Ecuador,
where Diaz oversees Skanska’s oil activities
in the rain forest, the local population, authorities and environmental
organizations have directed harsh criticism towards the operation.
According to Marcos Baños, from the environmental inspection
unit in the Amazon province of Orellana, Skanska has been negligent
from an environmental standpoint as well as a purely legal
one, a problem that they have attempted to bribe themselves
out of.
However, it is not just in Ecuador that Skanska is behaving
badly. There are also
concrete facts regarding the company’s negligent and
reckless activities in Bolivia.
Bolivia – a Highly Dangerous “Banana
Republic”
Police brutality at ProtestIn conjunction with oil exploitation,
a poisonous gas is produced which, by law, should be taken
care of and burned off under special conditions. However, an
illegal practice has resulted in these byproducts, for economic
reasons, frequently being released around oil fields to avoid
taxes and the expenses associated with lawful burning. This
practice has resulted in numerous toxic and unnecessary pollutants
being released, which can also result in imminent mortal danger
since the emissions form stores of explosive gas.
In oil fields in the Bolivian Chapare, where Skanska works
with Repsol-YPF, this has resulted in catastrophic consequences
for the local population, and even though innocent people have
lost their lives, the companies continue with their illegal
polluting practice.[8] In Latin America, they are obviously
able to operate in a climate completely exempt from penalties
and with military protection against local civic opposition.
In June
2005, Repsol-YPF’s gas emissions around an oil
field in Bolivia (Chapare-Surubí D) resulted in an explosion
in which people from the local native village were killed.
Skanska works with Repsol-YPF at the same field (overseeing
technical aspects of the exploitation), without acknowledging
any responsibility whatsoever for the hazardous situation that
the oil production generates.
The Industry’s Innocent Victims
Those affected by the gas explosion in Bolivia included 45-year
old Emilio Uceida and his two sons who, during the evening
of the accident in 2005, were out on a fishing trip by the
river next to their home. When one of the family members lit
a cigarette lighter, the gas that had been released out over
the river ignited, upon which the father and his sons started
burning. Emilio Uceida and his 13-year old son Edgar Uceida
burned to death, while the other son, 18-year old Mario Uceida,
received such life-threatening burns that he still remains
in hospital care. His condition is critical and he will suffer
from pain and invalidity for the rest of his life.
It was not until a week after the tragic event that the company
allowed the Bolivian authorities into the area for a criminal
investigation. When the various authorities and organizations
from the Cochabamba province later visited the area to inspect
the oil field, they were denied access to the oil block, while
the parties involved persisted in denying all responsibility
for the event.
Repsol-YPF
has also threatened to report the Uceida family for an “sabotage”, which has terrified Emilio Uceida’s
widow, Nicola Uceida, and other family members. Nor have the
survivors received any form of compensation or pension, despite
major economic hardships resulting from the loss. Instead,
the oil company built a cement house for them along the oil
road and on land that is now worthless and unusable due to
contamination.[9]
An Enslaving Death Industry
Burning gas According to a local informer, they are still
releasing gas into the area and leaks from the exploitation
operation are contaminating the land and waterways, making
it difficult or impossible for the local population to live
off the land and remain self-sufficient as they used to be.
This has also resulted in the villages becoming economically
dependent on the industry, with people becoming indebted slaves
since the companies know how to exploit their vulnerable situation.
According to the Repsol-mata network and campaign, which is
fighting the outrages committed by Repsol-YPF and the oil industry,
it is common knowledge that the companies in Chapare make frequent
use of indebted slaves, but that it is difficult to prosecute
cases legally, since the people fear reprisal actions.
Chapare
in Bolivia is just one of many oil regions where companies
put their agenda ahead of human lives and ecosystems. It is
in this context – of an industry whose mafia-like operations
terrorize the local population, string along the local authorities
and destroy entire ecosystems – the Swedish giant Skanska’s
activities in Latin America are occurring.
The fact
that Skanska has promoted itself as an ethical company appears,
in light of this duplicity (of on the one hand promoting “Sustainable
Development” and on the other hand exploiting oil) as
an ironic confirmation of a shameless double standard and hypocrisy.
It is also a reminder that marketing concepts such as “Corporate
Social Responsibility” and “Green Technology” are
not at all necessarily anchored in reality.
At present,
Skanska, the Swedish constructionist that promote itself
as a “green builder”, continues to extract
oil in regions where native people are being wiped out due
to the predatory exploitation of the Amazon’s black gold.
Organisations
who are fighting against companies like Skanska and Big Oil
in Latin America are Oilwatch, Acción Ecológica,
the Repsol-mata network and campaign, among others, as well
as organizations for tribal people’s rights like Survival
International.
More Information:
Oilwatch - http://www.oilwatch.org/
Repsol-mata network and campaign: http://repsolmata.info/
Accion Ecológica: http://accionecologica.org/webae/index.php
Survival International: http://www.survival-international.org/
Notes:
[1] Oilwatch: http://www.oilwatch.org/
[2] Acción Ecológica, environmental organization
in Ecuador: http://www.accionecologica.org/webae/index.php
[3] Repsol-mata network and campaign: http://repsolmata.info/
[4] Repsol-mata network and campaign: http://repsolmata.info/
[5] Skanska Code of Conduct: http://www.skanska.com/files/documents/pdf/code_of_conduct.pdf
[6] Skanska Code of Conduct: http://www.skanska.com/files/documents/pdf/code_of_conduct.pdf
[7] Skanska on Yelah.net: http://www.yelah.net/articles/tema20070619
[8] http://repsolmata.info/
[9] http://repsolmata.info/
Agneta
Enström is
an editor and reporter at www.yelah.net.
Yelah is a Swedish independent media group, uncovering activism
and politics worldwide. She has recently worked in Ecuador,
researching Skanska and oil exploration on indigenous land.
(nettila@hotmail.com).Petroleumworld
does not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
note: This commentary was originally published by Upside
Down World, on 30 October 2007. This article is part 4 in
a series by Agneta Enström (Part
1) ,
(Part
2) , (Part
3) Petroleumworld reprint this
article in the interest of our readers. Petroleumworld does not
necessarily share these views.
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