Democrats charge CEOs of oil majors lied at Senate hearing
Washington (Platts)--16Nov2005
Senate Democrats Wednesday charged that the chief executives of the major
oil companies lied on two counts last week when they testified before a joint
Senate hearing.
Senators Barbara Boxer (Democrat-California), Maria Cantwell
(Democrat-Washington) and Frank Lautenberg (Democrat-New Jersey) called for a
follow-up hearing in which the executives would return to Capitol Hill to
testify under oath. Boxer alleged in a news conference that Shell Oil
President John Hofmeister was not truthful about Shell's attempt to sell the
70,000 b/d Bakersfield, California, refinery. According to Boxer, Hofmeister
said Shell attempted to sell the refinery, but that there was no interest.
Boxer said this contradicted a former Shell executive's statement that the
company did not seek a buyer for the refinery.
Shell, which initially decided to shut the facility, claiming it was not
profitable, was ultimately pressured by California to sell it. The plant was
bought by Big West, a unit of Flying J.
Meanwhile, Lautenberg said the majors lied during his questioning at the
Senate hearing concerning oil company profits and high energy prices.
Lautenberg questioned the oil company executives about whether their companies
or company representatives participated in Vice President Dick Cheney's energy
task force in 2001, which helped shape what was to become the Bush
Administration's national energy plan.
The oil company officials denied any participation, but a story in
Wednesday's Washington Post cited a White House document that officials from
some of the companies had participated in such meetings.
Lautenberg has sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking
him to determine whether the CEOs violated a federal law against false
statements to Congress. Federal law makes it a crime, punishable by fines or
imprisonment for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious
or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress, according to the
Washington Post's story.
While the company officials at the hearing -- Lee Raymond of ExxonMobil,
Dave O'Reilly of Chevron, Jim Mulva of ConocoPhillips, Ross Pillari of BP
America and John Hofmeister of Shell Oil -- all either denied participation
or said they had no knowledge of it, the Washington Post article, citing the
White House document, said that officials from BP, the then-Conoco and
Phillips Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Shell all met with the Cheney task force
staff in 2001.
The concept of participation was a key definition in failed lawsuits
seeking to compel Cheney to release information on the panel. The White House,
said industry executives did not participate in the panel's work. If they had,
federal courts indicated they would have asked the White House to release the
documents because the Cheney panel would have included private groups, making
it subject to sunshine laws.
The Washington Post article quoted Alan Huffman, an official with Conoco
until the 2002 merger with Phillips, as confirming the task force
meeting. "We met in the Executive Office Building, if I remember correctly,"
he told the newspaper. A spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips told the newspaper
that CEO Mulva was unaware that Conoco officials had met with the
Cheney task force staff when Mulva testified before Congress.
The newspaper quoted a spokesman for ExxonMobil as standing by company
CEO Raymond's statement to the Senate Energy and Commerce committees that
his company did not participate in such a meeting. And it quoted a former
ExxonMobil vice president named in the White House document, James Rouse, as
denying the meeting occurred. "That must be inaccurate and I don't have any
comment beyond that," Rouse told the Post.
The Post also cited an unnamed source familiar with the Cheney
task force as saying the document was based on records kept by the Secret
Service of people admitted to the White House complex. The source said most of
the meetings involved Andrew Lundquist, the task force's executive director,
and Karen Knutson, a Cheney aide.
The newspaper said that, based on the document, former ExxonMobil
executive Rouse met with task force staff members on Feb 14, 2001, while on
Mar 21, the task force met with then-Conoco Chairman Archie Dunham. The
story said the document also noted a meeting on Apr 12 with Conoco's Huffman
and two officials with the US Oil and Gas Association (formerly the
Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association), Wayne Gibbens and Alby Modiano.
The Post said that task force members on Apr 17 met with
Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, as well as the chairman at
the time of Shell Oil, Steven Miller. And on Mar 22, the staff met with BP
Americas officials, including regional President Bob Malone and chief
economist Peter Davies.
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