[marron]

Pipeline construction in third world countries: not for the faint of heart. You put up 3 billion dollars, face obstruction from Euro NGOs and enviro groups, guerrilla attacks, national governments which can change the rules on the fly.

Shell and Mobil spent $250 million of their own money to do front end engineering; the Peruvians failed to come through on promised legislation necessary to make the economics work, and the two majors walked away and lost their investment. Peru repackaged the project, and sold it again to new, lesser known investors, and the project is now underway.

The new investors have bought, for their money, the right to push a pipeline through some of the roughest terrain on earth, and to do it in the face of guerrilla attacks just adds icing to the cake.

People who think the energy business is a money machine really have no clue at all. But when you look at the kinds of things your average oil exec deals with every day before his coffee is cold, you can understand why our most effective diplomats and managers in the current administration came out of the oil industry.

[yonif]

"They are asking for $1 million, high-tech communications equipment and explosives"

They are asking for explosives? Do they actually believe they will get that?