Work to expand the refinery was sub-contracted by Total's main contractor - engineering firm Jacobs - to an Italian company, IREM, which decided to use its own foreign workforce.
"No real investments are going on, " said Brad Michelson, a vice president at Infinity Systems Engineering, a Colorado Springs-based government contractor in engineering, intelligence and information technology.
The company attributed increased costs to a combination of high inflation in Argentina and Chile, lower-than-expected contractor productivity, schedule extension and engineering, and planning gaps.