Citgo may offer oil discount to Northwest tribes

EVERETT – Venezuela’s state-owned oil company wants to offer substantial discounts on home heating oil to American Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest, The Herald of Everett reported Saturday.

Representatives of Citgo Petroleum Corp. have contacted the Tulalip Tribes near Marysville, the Yakama Nation in central Washington, the Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene tribes in Idaho, and others with information about a possible 40 percent discount on home heating oil.

Citgo is the Houston-based subsidiary of an oil company controlled by Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chavez.

The idea is still in the exploratory stage, Citgo spokesman Jorge Toledo said.

“We’re going to meet with some tribes in the West Coast within the next few weeks to consider the feasibility of a program there,” he said. A meeting is also scheduled Wednesday at a SeaTac hotel.

While heating oil is widely used on the East Coast, it’s been mostly replaced by natural gas in the West. Heating oil is essentially the same product as diesel fuel.

Citgo first delivered discounted heating oil to low-income communities last year in Massachusetts, New York and other Northeast states. Using the slogan, “From the Venezuelan heart to the U.S. hearths,” Citgo sold fuel to eligible homes and nonprofit organizations.

By spring, the company had delivered nearly 40 million gallons of heating oil to 181,000 American households, company President Felix Rodriguez said.

The city of Chicago declined a deal with Citgo for fueling public buses that could have saved $15 million. City leaders said they were reluctant to deal with Chavez.

Chavez has signed energy deals with France, India and China, and is looking for other allies against “the imperialist power,” according to the Washington Post.

When members of the Penobscot Nation in Maine heard about the heating oil program last fall, they contacted the Venezuelan embassy and asked whether they were eligible.

“Within 24 hours, the embassy’s response was, ‘Yes, they are,’ and it stunned us,” tribal chief James Sappier said. Weeks later, Sappier and leaders of three other tribes met with the company. In February, the tribe bought nearly 1 million gallons of heating oil, enough to heat 912 houses and several tribal complexes for the winter.

Tribal members paid $1.47 per gallon for oil that would otherwise have cost them $2.52 per gallon, Sappier said. They saved more than $1 million. “This has been one of the best things we’ve ever done for Indians and our tribe,” he said.

Citgo sent representatives to a national tribal conference in May to spread the word about the fuel discount.

“It’s exploratory at this stage,” said David Conrad, director of the National Tribal Environmental Conference. “They want to see if there’s enough people on home heating oil to make enough economic sense to expand it to those states.”

Citgo also has contacted tribes in the Southwest.

Northwest tribal leaders say they know little more than what was said in an e-mail brochure from Citgo that began circulating this week.

In the brochure, Chavez said the program brings a better life to the poorest and most vulnerable people. “This program fulfills a promise I made to the people of the United States, and it is a gift warmly given to our American friends,” Chavez said.

Steve Gobin, deputy general manager of the Tulalip Tribes’ Quil Ceda Village, said he plans to attend the SeaTac meeting. There are only four or five families on the Tulalip Reservation who receive tribal assistance with home heating oil, but Gobin suspects other families could qualify.

The discounted oil is a donation and tax write-off for Citgo, Sappier said.

Citgo officials say the program is a response to a letter that U.S. lawmakers – including Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; and others – sent to oil companies, seeking relief from high fuel costs for America’s poor.

“The only company that responded was Citgo,” Sappier said.

Attacks on Chavez by U.S. officials demean the program, Sappier said. “It has come from another country, but it’s the best,” he said.

In an e-mail, Cantwell said she welcomes any oil company’s efforts to help low-income families pay their heating bills.

Cantwell spokeswoman Charla Neuman later said that what matters is this program could help Washington state families, regardless of political motivation.

“I don’t think any of us really believe oil companies make decisions from their hearts,” Neuman said.