WASHINGTON: Much scrutiny of the ongoing US presidential race has focussed on the personal fortunes amassed by President Bush and his challenger Senator John Kerry. But millions of dollars from other sources are also at play behind the scenes, including from major actors in the US oil and gas industry.

Leading the way is privately-held Koch Industries, which has contributed more than half a million dollars in the 2004 election cycle, and just under 5.5 million dollars to election campaigns since 1989, 90 per cent of that money going to members of Bush's Republican Party, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics, a research group here that tracks campaign contributions.

"Koch has enjoyed significant entries into politics, specifically Republican administrations, over the years," said the centre's research director, Sheila Krumholz, in an interview with IPS.

According to a recent report by another Washington-based group, the Centre for Public Integrity, the oil and gas industry has spent more than 440 million dollars since 1998 on campaign contributions and lobbying.

ExxonMobil was the industry's lobbying leader, spending 55 million dollars in Washington since 1998, adds the report, "The Politics of Oil."

Other big spenders included ChevronTexaco (32 million dollars), Marathon Oil (29 million), British oil giant BP (28 million), British/Dutch behemoth Royal Dutch/Shell Group (27 million), the American Petroleum Institute (20 million) and Occidental Petroleum (12 million), according to the report by the centre, which conducts investigative research on public policy issues.

Some of the more sensational names mentioned in the document are scandal-plagued Enron Corp, which spent 16 million dollars on campaigns and lobbying, and Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer Halliburton Corp (three million dollars), which is currently the subject of government investigations of its contract work in Iraq and alleged bribes paid in connection with a natural gas project in Nigeria.

"The oil industry is not particularly open, especially in relation to their political doings," project director at the Centre for Public Integrity, Bob Williams, said.

The money spent by the industry in Washington since 1998 includes more than 67 million dollars in campaign contributions in federal elections, about one-fifth the amount that the companies spent on lobbying, according to the report.

The centre also found that oil and gas companies overwhelmingly favoured Republicans over Democrats, calculating that more than 73 per cent of their political spending has gone to Republican candidates and organizations.

The centre's report charges that the National Petroleum Council (NPC), a little-known federally chartered but privately funded group that advises the secretary of energy, has been an "underground pipeline" of political influence for the oil and gas industry for years.

Ten NPC members were Bush Pioneers (a person who raises at least 100,000 dollars for the Bush campaign).

The report says the NPC got the Energy Department to consider a wide-ranging exemption for the energy industry from public disclosure.

"What the oil and gas industry is doing on Capitol Hill could have a dramatic effect on the lives of everyday citizens," said Centre for Responsive Politics Communications Director Steven Weiss, in an interview.

Bush has received the most campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry of any politician since 1998 (1.7 million dollars) says the centre's report. Contributors included Enron, Halliburton and Koch.-Dawn/The InterPress News Service.