Alaskan Villages Get Citgo Vouchers for Millions of Gallons of Oil

Last year the Venezuelan-owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. announced an offer to give vouchers to more than 11,000 homes in rural villages in Alaska for free heating fuel. The villages have finally begun to receive the oil, although it took about two months longer than organizers had hoped.

Steve Sumida, deputy director of the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, told reporters in September that the AITC had met with Citgo to provide data on rural communities in order to meet their criteria for establishing the free oil program, which Sumida said the council was calling the "Indian" program. Citgo wanted to provide vouchers for 110250 gallons of heating oil per household to communities that have a population that is at least 80% indigenous.

The AITC had hoped vouchers would reach the villages by the beginning of November, but Citgo had asked for documentation of the addresses and heads of households for every home. Because gathering the required information was such a huge undertaking, particularly in the most remote areas, the paperwork took much longer to complete than anticipated. However, more than 150 villages were able to meet Citgo’s September 1 deadline, and residents began receiving vouchers at the end of 2006.

According to The Anchorage Daily News, vouchers can be redeemed at local fuel sellers. Sumida said that the program is based on a model designed by the Tanana Chiefs Council in the Interior. Funds for the heating oil will go to local nonprofits, which will then deliver the vouchers to the heads of households identified in the documentation. "Citgo wanted to provide 40% of the heating oil for the four coldest months of the winter," Sumida said. He added that this is a pilot program that may be expanded in the future.

The outreach effort by Venezuela has perplexed government officials and politicians, because Venezuela’s left-wing president, Hugo Chavez, has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. government. This is not the first time Citgo has provided relief for financially strapped Americans; last winter the company sent 5 million gallons of heating oil to low-income residents of Philadelphia at a 40% discount, and similar donations have been made to New York and several states in New England. Many politicians and consumers view the donations as the equivalent of Chavez thumbing his nose at the Bush administration.

Citgo’s $5.2 million gift was refused by the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, a Native regional nonprofit corporation that represents four villages who are eligible to receive vouchers but declined them. Many consumers are averse to receiving charity from a country whose leader called Bush "the devil" in a speech at the United Nations in September.

Still, Alaskans including Jennifer Apatiki are not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Apatiki lives in Gambell, where heating fuel costs $4.65 a gallon. Apatiki said it has cost her more than $600 a month to heat her home so far this winter, so she was delighted when her husband brought home a 55-gallon drum of free heating oil because of Citgo’s vouchers. "It was a great way to start the new year," she said. "Devil, angel, whoever gave it to us, we’re grateful."