Protesters Call for End to Occidental Drilling Project

Activists targeted Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s annual meeting Friday to press for an end to an oil-drilling project on what they say is sacred native land in Colombia, continuing what has become a noisy and angry tradition for the Los Angeles oil company.

As shareholders arrived at Oxy’s meeting in Santa Monica, they were met by about 100 protesters waving signs, beating drums and shouting disapproving chants in English and Spanish. For the last five years, U’wa tribe supporters have picketed the event in hopes of swaying shareholders to divest from Oxy.

The meeting is traditionally held to showcase the company’s yearlong efforts to boost earnings and reduce debt. However, company directors fielded several questions about Oxy’s potentially profitable interest in an oil-drilling project that sits on land claimed by the U’wa.

Occidental, backed by the Colombian government, began drilling a long-delayed test well in the area late last year. All 5,000 members of the nature-worshiping U’wa tribe have threatened in the past to walk off a 1,400-foot cliff in the Andes in a mass suicide to protect the land they say has belonged to them for thousands of years. But Occidental continues to maintain that its test-well site is in a developed area outside the U’wa reservation.

The activists, some of whom own Occidental stock, also put forth a non-management resolution asking company directors to investigate the financial, environmental and cultural risks of the oil project. They say adverse effects on Oxy’s public image, coupled with legal liabilities, could hurt the company’s long-term profitability. About 6% of shareholders voted for the resolution.

Colombia is key to the firm’s oil production in Latin America, Chairman and Chief Executive Ray R. Irani told shareholders. He said that the test well in northwest Colombia should be completed this year and that the company had worked with the U.S. and Colombian governments to ensure that the project can be completed without violence.

“Neither the U.S. government nor the government of Colombia recognize the allegation that we are drilling on U’wa sacred land,” Irani said.

The U’wa people, who say the land is their home and the sacred burial ground of their ancestors, are afraid their cultural identity will be forgotten, said Roberto Perez, the tribe’s president.

“For eight years, we have been fighting against Occidental for our land,” Perez told supporters before the meeting. “We will continue to defend our ancestors, our culture and our sacred rights. . . . Several community members have been beaten, mistreated and arrested. We hold Occidental responsible.”

Despite lengthy, pointed questions from several stockholders and U’wa supporters in the audience, Irani tried to keep the focus on Occidental’s recent performance and outlook for coming years. He noted that in 2000, the company posted the strongest financial performance in its 81 years of operation. Driven by oil and natural gas operations, Oxy reported net income, before special items, of $1.3 billion on sales of $13.6 billion.

Company directors vowed to use some of the record earnings to reduce Oxy’s debt by $1 billion this year. Since December, the company has trimmed its debt to $6.1 billion.

Oxy shares gained 35 cents to close at $27.42 on the New York Stock Exchange.