NEW ROLE FOR U.S. IN COLOMBIA: PROTECTING A VITAL OIL PIPELINE

SARAVENA, Colombia, Sept. 27 - Casting a wary eye for rebel snipers, Lt.
Felipe Zuniga and his counterinsurgency troops slog through the wet fields
and patches of jungle here. Their mission has nothing to do with drugs -
until now, the defining issue in Colombia for American policy makers - but
instead with protecting a pipeline that carries crude to an oil-hungry America.

The 500-mile pipeline, which snakes through eastern Colombia, transporting
100,000 barrels of oil a day for Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles, is
emerging as a new front in the terror war. One of Colombia's most valuable
assets, the pipeline has long been vulnerable to bombings by Colombia's
guerrilla groups, which along with the country's paramilitary outfits are
included on the Bush administration's list of terrorist organizations.

Sometime in the next month, in a significant shift in American policy,
United States Special Forces will arrive in Colombia to begin laying the
groundwork for the training of Lieutenant Zuniga and his 35-man squad in
the finer arts of counterinsurgency. Over the next two years, 10 American
helicopters will bolster the Colombian counterinsurgency efforts, and some
4,000 more troops will receive American training, which will begin in
earnest in January, Bush administration and American military officials
said in interviews in recent days.

The policy shift dovetails with the Bush administration's new, global
emphasis on expanding and diversifying the sources of America's oil
imports, with an eye to reducing dependence on Middle Eastern oil. That new
approach, outlined in the administration's energy report issued last year,
is gaining ever more importance with the threat to Persian Gulf oil
supplies from the looming war with Iraq.

The $94 million counterinsurgency program is also an important element in
the offensive by Colombia's new government against two rebel groups and a
paramilitary force that dominate much of the country.

Pipeline bombings by the guerrillas cost the government nearly $500 million
last year - a blow in a country where oil accounts for 25 percent of
revenues. The two main rebel groups, which view Occidental as a symbol of
American imperialism, have bombed the pipeline 948 times since the 1980's,
while extorting oil royalty payments from local government officials.

The Colombian military has increased security recently, deploying five of
the six battalions in the 6,000-man 18th Brigade to pipeline protection, up
from just two battalions last year. As a result, the number of bombings has
fallen to 30 this year, from 170 the year before, Colombian military
officials say. But the goal is to eliminate the bombings altogether, they
say, and to accomplish that they need help.

"We have been fighting here, but there are still so many things the
Americans can teach us," said Lieutenant Zuniga as he led a reporter on
patrol along the pipeline. "I think it is going to make us much better."

The final product, officials say, will be an offensive-minded unit of
Colombian counterinsurgency analysts who will interpret intelligence data
gathered from high-tech equipment and informers and then deploy
rapid-response forces stationed at strategic points along the pipeline to
thwart rebel attacks.

"The idea is to prepare troops for the war we are living," said Gen. Carlos
Lemus, commander of the 18th Brigade, which will receive much of the
training here in Arauca Province. "We will be able to do so much more, with
better intelligence and helicopters. The idea is to find out when something
is going to happen and react."

The training could not take place in a more dangerous area. Though the army
base here - with its neatly pruned hedges, modern barracks and billboard
featuring the fighting words of Gen. George S. Patton - gives an air of
familiarity American soldiers might find comforting, Saravena itself sits
in a war zone.

"What they can expect is lead," boasted a local commander for the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest and most
belligerent rebel group. "What else? That and cadavers."

Indeed, the rebels have flexed their muscles all year in Saravena,
launching dozens of homemade rockets that have destroyed the airport
terminal, the city hall, the town council chambers and the prosecutor's
office. Policemen on patrol are frequently fired upon, and military
officials say that despite the new deployment of Colombian troops the
pipeline is still exposed to attack.

"With these bandits," said Lt. Col. Emilio Torres, a local army commander,
"if you leave the pipeline alone even 24 hours, they can blow the tube."

Alert to the dangers, American military officials said the trainers,
Special Forces soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C., will be limited to 20 to 60
and will be housed in specially fortified barracks.

Colombia's new president, Alvaro Uribe, also declared Arauca one of two
security zones where military commanders can conduct searches without
warrants, impose curfews and usurp some powers from local government -
measures the United Nations says will erode civil rights.

Bush administration officials have said the reliable production of oil is
imperative if Colombia is to have the resources to combat the guerrillas
and paramilitaries. But oil is also critical to the national security
planning of the United States, which by 2020 will count on imported oil for
62 percent of its oil needs, up from half today.

Much of that new oil will come from the Americas, which already supply the
United States with nearly 50 percent of its imported oil. Along with
Venezuela and Ecuador, the Andes now provides the United States with more
than two million barrels a day, about 20 percent of its imports.

Colombia will never be the sole solution to America's voracious appetite
for oil. But the country is known for high-quality oil that is cheap to
produce and easy to refine, and is thought to have significant potential
reserves that could be rapidly exploited if the guerrillas and
paramilitaries could be brought under control.

"We're becoming increasingly dependent on imported oil, therefore the
strategic goal of diversification has become more and more important," said
Michael Klare, author of "Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global
Conflict." "The Clinton administration and now the Bush administration have
explicitly stated that that one of the regions they have wanted to rely on
in the future is the Western Hemisphere."

Many oil analysts say reliance on this region could greatly increase if the
major producer, Venezuela, increased its production capacity and if
Colombia - which shares many of the same geological features as Venezuela -
achieved enough stability to allow widespread exploration.

"We don't really know what's there," said Ed Corr, a former American
diplomat in Latin America and an expert on the strategic aspects of
petroleum. "But we certainly would be wise in getting the country in such a
situation where we can find out."

Washington's shift to counterinsurgency was made possible in July, when
Congress rolled back restrictions that had limited American aid toantidrug
programs. The drug war continues unabated, but the phasing out of those
prohibition has been warmly welcomed by energy companies, which have been
pressing for a wider role for the United States to improve the business
climate.

"You'll see more interest on the part of more companies," Larry Meriage,
spokesman for Occidental, said in an interview. "Given the fact that there
is a significant amount of oil there, and the sheer mass of oil that
remains under-explored, there is considerable optimism."

Occidental, well-versed in Colombia's troubles by virtue of its two decades
here, is close to the Bush administration and has long lobbied for the
United States to be more involved in the conflict.

According to the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, the company
contributed $1.5 million to presidential and Congressional campaigns
between 1995 and 2000. Occidental also spent nearly $8.7 million lobbying
American officials on Latin America policy, largely regarding Colombia,
from 1996 to 2000, according to disclosure forms filed with Congress.

Other oil and energy companies also spent handsomely, with Exxon Mobil
Corporation, BP Amoco, the Unocal Corporation, Texaco and Phillips
Petroleum spending about $13 million among them on Colombia and other
issues in the same period, according to disclosure forms collected by the
Center of Public Integrity.

"We see the oil companies leveraging their influence in Washington to move
the United States toward a counterinsurgency policy," said Ted Lewis of
Global Exchange, a San Francisco human rights group that closely follows
business issues here.

Mr. Meriage counters that not taking strong action here could further
weaken Colombia and its neighbors, which are economically dependent on oil.
"We have long highlighted these problems," he said. "You see the potential
danger of an entire Andean region being destabilized by the problems in
Colombia. That's why this is important."

A tour of the Occidental facilities here in Cano Limon oil fields
underscores the links between the company and Colombia's military. The 300
or so troops stationed here wear patches featuring an oil drilling rig. New
motorcycle patrols zip down a network of roads, while antiguerrilla patrols
work their way through the jungle. Light tanks and heavily fortified
bunkers are strategically positioned along the pipeline to deter attacks.

Two military aircraft - a helicopter and a Cessna - patrol the pipeline
with gasoline paid for by Occidental, and military helicopters carrying
troops on operations often swing by here to fill their fuel tanks. Even the
brigade commander, General Lemus, drinks coffee from a mug bearing the Oxy
logo.

"This is an island of security that we have here, thanks to the army," said
one Occidental official.

The company is now producing nearly twice as much oil as last year at its
212 wells. It has also signed contracts recently with the state oil company
to explore three additional blocs covering 9,325 square miles.

"This is the Colombians' war to win, and they have to step up to the
fight," said Brig. Gen. Galen Jackman, director of operations for American
forces in Latin America. "And they have to put their country on a footing
to be able to do that."