Colombia's Ecopetrol Gets Yet Another Corporate Welfare Check From US

by Stephen Peacock

For the second time this month, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) has figured out a way to siphon money from the U.S. Treasury and transfer it to Ecopetrol of Colombia. Whereas the previous handout (see Narcosphere Jan. 3) was geared toward the modernization of the thriving company's Barrancabermeja refinery complex, the most recently discovered scheme provides yet another smokescreen for the fleecing of U.S. taxpayers: Colombian oil pipeline security.

Ecopetrol is getting the handout via the Hydrocarbon Pipeline Safety and Security Project Feasibility Study project at USTDA, which currently is recruiting potential contractors -- that is, contractors of U.S. origin only -- to carry out the initiative.

The purported goal of the endeavor is to weigh the costs and benefits of improving "the safety, security, and integrity of Colombia's hydrocarbon pipeline system, acccording to a presolicitation notice dated Jan. 19 discovered during a routine search of the FedBizOpps contracting database.

"Ecopetrol S.A. seeks to improve safety and security and reduce losses of crude oil and petroleum products in the hydrocarbon pipeline system through a program of strategic investments," the document says.

As this writer pointed out in the Jan. 3 Narcosphere report, Ecopetrol in 2006 had planned to spend -- on its own -- $339 million for exploration initiatives, $675 million for production, $256 million for petrochemical and refinery operations, $66 million for transportation, and $69 million for unspecified "corporate" expenses. These USTDA programs are therefore nothing less than corporate welfare checks that benefit the Bush Administration's oil-industry friends in South America and back in the "homeland."

A pickpocket is a pickpocket, regardless of whether the thief gets away with five cents or $500,000, as in this current pilferage.

The above link to the USTDA planning document is scheduled to be active until March 6, when the document will be archived under standard operating procedures of FedBizOpps.