Oil Companies Sell to Soviets Despite Reagan

Big oil may have never had a better friend in the oval office than Ronald Reagan. But Reagan has to be wondering, how much that friendship means when his administration's foreign policy collides with the plans of the companies.

Consider the oil companies' role in the Siberian natural gas pipeline. At the Ottawa summit this summer, Reagan forcefully pressed West Germany to back off a planned S 15 billion pipeline to transport natural gas from Siberia to Western Europe. The administration fears that the plan would make Western Europe dependent on the Soviets, and would buttress the Russian economy with an infusion of foreign currency.

West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt rejected Reagan's entreaties and negotiations between the) Soviets and the giant German utility Ruhrgas AG are continuing. Five international oil companies are the majority owners in the utility.

According to financial records, Ruhrgas is about two-thirds owned by Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, British Petroleum and Shell. The three U.S.-based firms own about a fourth of the utility.

Ironically, a few weeks before Reagan asked Schmidt to back off of energy trade with the Soviets, the U.S. Commerce Department issued a guide for American companies hoping to export energy technology to Eastern bloc countries. Noting that "most East European countries will face a serious energy shortage in the 1980s," the guide offers specific suggestions on the equipment needs of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania. For example, the report says East Germany is looking for help in its strip-mining and coal gasification industries.

What makes the guide even more difficult to explain is that it was released despite an official U.S. government ban on new government publications. When asked about the ban, one Commerce Department official replied: "Is there a moratorium on new publications?"