U.S. oil companies step up anti-san

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Subject: U.S. oil companies step up anti-sanctions efforts 


  	  				 
	 NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuter) - U.S. oil companies Thursday  
stepped up efforts to head off sanctions against some oil 
producing nations that have been prompted by human rights 
concerns. 
	 Their move came during the debate on China's Most Favoured  
Nation trading status and on top of a dispute between human 
rights activists and Unocal Corp. over the company's 
involvement in Burma. 
	 U.S. oil companies point out that unlike other industries,  
they have little choice over where they find resources, which 
are distributed by geography and sometimes in countries with 
less than perfect human rights records. 
	 ``If American firms are to thrive in a world where  
political boundaries are no longer viewed as barriers to trade 
then we believe the leaders of our government must place our 
nation squarely on the side of international trade and 
investment,'' Marie Knowles, chief financial officer at 
Atlantic Richfield Co., told a conference in Washington 
Thursday. 
	 Other companies such as Mobil Corp have been running a  
series of op-ed columns in newspapers such as the Wall Street 
Journal in an effort to get their message across to Capitol 
Hill and the public. 
	 Thursday's piece, the second in a series, terms U.S.  
government trade sanctions on countries including Cuba, Iran, 
Iraq and China as ``saber-rattling'' politics that can be seen 
as a ``theatrical display meant largely for domestic 
consumption''. 
	 A Mobil spokesman denied Thursday's piece was aimed  
specifically at China, but addressed the debate about 
unilateral sanctions in general. 
	 A recent study by the National Association of  
Manufacturers said that between 1993 and 1996, some 61 U.S. 
laws and executive actions were enacted authorising unilateral 
economic sanctions aimed at 35 countries. 
	 In the case of the oil industry, NAM notes that $2 billion  
was lost in exports to the former Soviet Union as a result of 
an embargo on petroleum equipment contracts in the 1980s. 
	 Oil companies generally claim that their involvement in  
developing countries is beneficial. Unocal points to the 
employment of local workers at high rates of pay in Burma and 
to the health clinics it has financed. However, protestors -- 
from the environmental group Greenpeace to members of the 
clergy -- accuse the companies of blind devotion to profit. 
	 At Texaco Inc.'s recent annual meeting, the company  
indicated it was considering selling its stake in a natural 
gas field in the Andaman Sea off the Burmese coast. However, 
it cited financial reasons, not human rights concerns. 
	 Citing the Burma embargo on new investment, NAM said the  
Yadana gas pipeline being constructed by Unocal, France's 
Total SA, the Petroleum Authority of Thailand and the Burmese 
state company would benefit 35,000 people. 
	 ``The lasting positive effects of the project will be felt  
long after the obstacles to democratization have been 
overcome,'' the report said. 
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