Ecobreves – PERU:: Oil Company Sanctioned

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

LIMA, Jun 13 2005 (IPS) - Sixteen oil wells belonging to the Argentine transnational Pluspetrol, in the northeastern Peruvian department of Loreto, have been shut down as a sanction for contaminating some 100 hectares of forests and wetlands in the Huanganayacu gorge. The sanction was ordered by Peru's energy investment oversight body, OSINERG, along with a 1.9-million-dollar fine, for dumping liquid waste into the gorge.

Norberto Benito, Pluspetrol's operation manager in Peru, said the cause was the collapse of a fiberglass pipeline.

The oil well suspension will stand until the company implements an improved water treatment process and presents a plan for cleaning up the affected areas.

Peruvian environmentalist Flavio Solórzano told Tierramérica that there was ''excessive delay'' between the denunciation — presented to OSINERG in November 2003 — and the decision to shut down operations, made on May 25 of this year.