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Gas Amazónico: new book exposes Ethnocide and Ecocide
Repsol in Camisea, Peru: Perpetrating
another ethnocide?
English: Urubamba River, Peru. : Wikipedia
The book Gas Amazónico “Amazon Gas ” exposes those responsible for the violation of the Rights to Life of peoples living in voluntary isolation.
by Marc Gavaldà.- The oil companies that are to exploit the Camisea Fields are operating with highly favpourable terms with questionable practices that violate the rights of native communities. The inaccessibility and lack of witnesses, combined with misleading government complicity and corporate image and community relations campaigns, allow Repsol, Petrobras, Hunt and Pluspetrol , the operating companies of lots 56,57,58 and 88, to act with a comfortable margin of impunity.
The book Gas Amazónico, a study under the Environmental Governability Program-ENGOV-which was recently published by the Icaria Editorial, provides new evidence of the misdeeds of these companies on both banks of the Urubamba River, south of the Peruvian Amazon.
There, dozens of indigenous communities, peoples Matsiguenga, Yne yami, Ashaninka and Kakinte have been entrapped to carry out an unprecedented industrialization of their territory.
English: Nahua man of Morelos plowing a bean field (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Even worse, isolated peoples like the Nahua, Nanti and Masco-piro, have their very survival gradually threatened.
Uniting the 4 lots, there are a total of more than 1 million and a half hectares affected by possible intervention, including even lands within the Nahua Nanti Kugakapori, the Machiguenga Parks and Ashaninka Communal Reserve and National Park boundaries and the Sanctuary Otishi Megantoni.
“The effects of this industrialization have already changed the lives of communities, but lots are still in an incipient stage of development. The companies that operate them, have taken five years exploring and in recent months have announced satisfactory results.
Having discovered proven reserves of gas, we have entered the countdown to the rampant opening of dozens of wells in each area, the laying of miles of pipelines, expansion of storage tanks and the construction of new pipelines to export the giant wealth discovered. And with this industrialization, the fate of the communities will be unwittingly trapped forever within this industrial complex that encompasses everything. “(1)
navigating the river
In a context of growing national ‘war of figures’ on production expectations and export gas volumes, corporations have been able to install in urban society an expectation of cheaper domestic gas, hugely expensive in Peru, by Repsol’s marketing of this resource. “Gas Amazónico” explores the problems and realities that contradict hopes of local development, and worse, show no respect for the right to life of peoples in voluntary isolation or initial contact.
In the book, he has pursued the documention of accidents and oil spills in rivers, the gradual deterioration of the quality of resources due to intensifying river and air transport and instruments of Community Relations focused on getting servile consent by mechanisms to create community dependency ..
In addition, he reconstructs the debacle of the recent history of first contact with the Nahua population by Shell and the subsequent Pluspetrol operations within the Nahua Nanti Kugakapori.
At present this company is planning to drill 18 new wells and the media suggests another area ( Fitzcarrald LOT) will br granted between this and Manu National Park. The threats are accentuating.
Reading gas Amazónico will be uncomfortable for Camisea corporations and certain offices in Lima. Because it is an insightful book that gives voice to communities, is well grounded and well referenced. It is effort to, from a scientific perspective, discredit the ideology of the extractive industry. And this data raises huge doubts on the campaigns of ‘corporate responsibilty’. His experience, in the field of environmental crime poses a severe challenge and questions the future of mining in the Amazon frontier.
El libro “Gas Amazónico” apunta su responsabilidad en la vulneración del derecho a la vida de los pueblos en aislamiento voluntario.
Marc Gavaldà.-Las empresas petrolíferas que explotan los lotes vinculados a Camisea juegan en un terreno favorable para operar con discutibles prácticas que vulneran los derechos de las comunidades nativas. La inaccesibilidad, la falta de testigos, unido a una complicidad gubernamental y las engañosas campañas de imagen corporativa y relacionamiento comunitario, permiten a Repsol, Petrobras, Hunt y Pluspetrol, empresas operadoras de los lotes 56,57,58 y 88, a actuar con un holgado margen de impunidad.
El libro Gas Amazónico, estudio del programa Environmental Governability-ENGOV- que recientemente ha publicado la editorial Icaria, aporta nuevas pruebas sobre las fechorías de estas empresas en ambos márgenes del río Urubamba, al sur de la Amazonía peruana. Alli, decenas de comunidades nativas, de los pueblos matsiguenga, yine yami, asháninka y kakinte se han visto intervenidas para llevar a cabo una industrialización del territorio sin precedentes.
Urubamba Valley, Sacred Valley of the Incas, Peru. The picture was taken on the road leading to Písac, it’s looking toward Calca. The town in the foreground is Taray (which was heavily damaged by floods in 2010). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Peor aún los pueblos en aislamiento nahua, nanti y masco-piro, cuya supervivencia es gradualmente amenazada. Uniendo los 4 lotes, suman más de 1 millón y medio de hectáreas afectadas por una posible intervención, incluso en el interior de la Reserva Territorial Nahua Kugakapori Nanti, las Reservas Comunales Machiguenga y Ashaninka y los límites del Parque Nacional Otishi y del Santuario Megantoni.
“Los efectos de esta industrialización ya se sienten y han modificado las condiciones de vida de las comunidades. Pero los lotes se encuentran todavía en una fase germinal de desarrollo. Las compañías que los operan, llevan un lustro explorando sus entrañas y en los últimos meses ya han arrojado satisfactorios resultados.
Habiendo descubierto reservas probadas de gas, hemos entrado en la cuenta atrás para la apertura desenfrenada de decenas de pozos en cada lote, el tendido de kilómetros de ductos, la ampliación de depósitos de almacén y la construcción de nuevos y gigantes gasoductos para exportar las riquezas descubiertas. Y con esta industrialización, el destino de las comunidades quedó, sin saberlo, atrapado para siempre dentro de este complejo industrial que lo abarca todo.”(1)
En un contexto nacional en pleno baile de cifras sobre las expectativas de producción y exportación de volúmenes de gas, las corporaciones logran instalar en la sociedad urbana la esperanza de un abaratamiento del gas doméstico, carísimo en Perú por la integración vertical de Repsol en todos los eslabones de producción y comercialización de este recurso. Pero en “Gas Amazónico” afloran las vicisitudes que ponen en entredicho el presumido desarrollo local y peor, el respeto al derecho a la vida de los pueblos en aislamiento voluntario o contacto inicial.
En el libro, se ha perseguido la documentación de accidentes y derrames de hidrocarburos en los ríos, el gradual deterioro de la calidad de los recursos por la intensificación del transporte fluvial y aéreo o los instrumentos de Relación Comunitaria enfocados a conseguir un consentimiento servil a partir de la disposición de mecanismos de dependencia en las comunidades.. Además, se reconstrunstruye la reciente historia del contacto y debacle poblacional del pueblo nahua a partir de la entrada de Shell y las posteriores operaciones de Pluspetrol en el interior de la Reserva Territorial Nahua Kugakapori Nanti.
En la actualidad, esta empresa plantea la construcción de 18 nuevos pozos y los medios insinúan la intención de otorgar otro lote (Lote Fitzcarrald) entre esta reserva y el Parque Nacional Manú. Las amenazas se acentúan.
Por eso, la lectura de Gas Amazónico resultará incómoda para las corporaciones de Camisea y en ciertos despachos de Lima. Porque es un reportaje in situ que da voz a las comunidades, está fundamentado y bien referenciado. Un esfuerzo para, desde una óptica científica, desmontar el discurso extractivista. Y aflorarán las dudas sobre el talante de responsabilidad que presumen las compañías. Sus coartadas, en el campo de la criminalidad ambiental, serán fuertemente cuestionadas y pondrán en duda el seguir apostando por el avance de las fronteras extractivas en la Amazonía.
Según Campodónico, los 500 millones de pies cúbicos diarios de gas de Camisea que Repsol compra al consorcio Hunt Oil, tiene un costo fijo de 2.45 dolores por mil pies cúbicos durante los 15 años de contrato, lo cual equivale a 6 mil millones de dólares. Sin embargo, Repsol vuelve a vender este gas a México a 9.45 dólares por mil pies cúbicos, lo cual equivaldría a un pago de 21 mil millones de dólares en 15 años…..
En una carta enviada al gobierno peruano, el Comité para la Eliminación de la Discriminación Racial (CERD) de la ONU solicitó la “suspensión inmediata” de los planes de expansión del proyecto de gas Camisea en la Reserva Nahua-Nanti en el Cusco, porque “amenaza la supervivencia física y cultural de los pueblos indígenas que allí habitan”, algunos en aislamiento voluntario. La petición se realiza tras el llamado que hicieron al CERD las organizaciones indígenas AIDESEP, ORAU y COMARU, que han iniciando acciones legales contra el gobierno y el consorcio Camisea, formado por la española Repsol, la argentina Pluspetrol y la estadounidense Hunt Oil.
REPSOL to Drill for Oil in Amazon Rainforest in Peru07/02/13
Repsol has been given the go-ahead by Peru‘s ministry of energy and mines (MEM) to explore for oil in one “protected” and one proposed reserve in the north of the country in the remote Amazon rainforest bordering Ecuador.
According to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the company’s plans initially submitted to MEM in 2011 and approved this month, exploration will involve 3D seismic tests across a 680sqkm area and drilling at least 21 wells.
Although Repsol doesn’t acknowledge it, all the tests and 20 of the 21 wells fall within a proposed reserve for indigenous peoples who live in what Peruvian law calls “voluntary isolation” and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of contact with outsiders.
The creation of this reserve was proposed by regional indigenous organisation ORAI in 2003 in order to protect the region and prohibit loggers, miners and oil and gas companies – like Repsol – from operating there.
Repsol has been given the go-ahead by Peru‘s ministry of energy and mines (MEM) to explore for oil in one “protected” and one proposed reserve in the north of the country in the remote Amazon rainforest bordering Ecuador.
According to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the company’s plans initially submitted to MEM in 2011 and approved this month, exploration will involve 3D seismic tests across a 680sqkm area and drilling at least 21 wells.
Although Repsol doesn’t acknowledge it, all the tests and 20 of the 21 wells fall within a proposed reserve for indigenous peoples who live in what Peruvian law calls “voluntary isolation” and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of contact with outsiders.
The creation of this reserve was proposed by regional indigenous organisation ORAI in 2003 in order to protect the region and prohibit loggers, miners and oil and gas companies – like Repsol – from operating there.
Last December the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to give $1m to Peru with the stated aim of protecting the country’s “isolated” indigenous peoples – some of which was scheduled to be spent on turning the proposed reserve in this region into a real one.
In 2007 national indigenous organisation AIDESEP appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help stop Repsol, but Peru’s ministry of justice and human rights is casting doubt on the “isolated” peoples’ existence and urging the IACHR to close the case.
In a letter to the IACHR in April last year, forwarded to AIDESEP this January, the ministry wrote:
The amount of time that has gone by (more than four years) since the appeal was made (August 2007) suggests that the situation is not a serious or urgent one, or that, in the hypothetical case it was ever serious or urgent, it isn’t any longer. … It is essential to highlight that the existence of the [indigenous] people [in voluntary isolation] is not even certain.
According to the EIA – prepared by Repsol together with a consultancy called Gema – the seismic tests will require detonating explosives underground, 42 camps, 75 “heliports”, over 1,300 workers, 3,800 “drop-zones”, and 2,343 miles (3,770kms) of 1.5 metre-wide paths cut out of the forest.
These tests are due to take place in the heart of the proposed reserve very near an area where, according to a map sent by regional indigenous organisation Orpio to the IACHR last year, “isolated” people were spotted in 2008.
Six of the wells – each one requiring 247 workers – will be inside the Pucacuro National Reserve, a supposedly “protected” 637,953 hectare area created three years ago which would be partially overlapped by the “isolated” peoples’ reserve if it was established.
The Pucacuro Reserve’s stated aim is to protect “one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation at the global level,” according to the government department responsible, SERNANP, and is renowned for its “exceptional richness of species.”
David Freitas, from Orpio, condemns Repsol’s plans to operate in this region:
The consequences for the isolated indigenous peoples could be fatal. This is a brutal, unwitting way of making sure they disappear – for nothing more than outside economic interests. Ten years have passed since the reserve was proposed but nothing concrete has been done.
Repsol says it is “aware of the region’s biological richness” and will not do anything without the government’s permission, claiming that after operating in the region “for the last 10 years” and performing “various studies” it has found no proof the “isolated” peoples exist.
Repsol’s Gonzalo Velasco Perez says:
Despite the fact we have no evidence for the existence of people in voluntary isolation, we have implemented an anthropological contingency plan that guarantees that, in the remote and improbable eventuality that there is a sighting of an uncontacted person, our team will always act appropriately by aiming to avoid contact and informing the relevant authorities.
Just two days before Repsol’s EIA was approved, the ministry of culture held a meeting in Lima about “isolated” indigenous peoples – supported by USAid and attended by government and civil society representatives from other south American countries.
“I was astonished by the hypocrisy and the way they tried to claim all is well,” says Freitas. “When asked about the proposed reserves, Peru’s representative said, ‘We’re continuing doing studies to see who, how many and where the isolated people are exactly’ and other idiotic things.”
Both AIDESEP and Orpio have already written reports listing considerable evidence of the “isolated” indigenous peoples in the region where Repsol is operating, and other companies, numerous state institutions, NGOs and individuals have acknowledged their existence.
Even Repsol itself has previously acknowledged that there are “isolated” peoples in this region, holding a public meeting in 2003, titled “The Uncontacted People”, in a town called Santa Clotilde on the River Napo downriver from its operations.
Repsol’s concession, known as “Lot 39″, is an 886,820 hectare area between the River Napo and River Tigre in Peru’s Loreto department where MEM estimates “probable” oil reserves to be larger than any other concession in the country.
According to a ground-breaking article published last month about oil and gas operations in Loreto, Repsol could reduce its impact in “Lot 39″ if it adopted industry best practices and used a different drilling technique requiring fewer wells.
“At the core of best practice is extended reach drilling (ERD) where the horizontal reach is at least two times greater than the vertical depth,” the article states. “[This] means a single drilling platform can reach multiple distant targets in an oil or gas deposit.”
Matt Finer, one of the article’s authors and a scientist at the Center for International Environmental Law, calls Repsol’s plans “troubling” on ecological, social and technical grounds:
The fact that Repsol’s planned project overlaps a national protected area and a proposed reserve for uncontacted indigenous groups in one of the most intact and biodiverse corners of the Amazon is highly troubling. It’s also troubling on technical grounds due to the lack of consideration of ERD. Our study found that instead of drilling 21 platforms, these same areas could be reached with just six by using ERD, thus greatly reducing the footprint of the project.
But Repsol’s Velasco Perez says that ERD is not applicable at this stage in their operations, ie in the exploratory phase, and that it is “only applicable in production drilling, in certain geological conditions and for certain types of wells.”
Repsol has held the license to operate in “Lot 39″ since 1999 and has already carried out some seismic tests and drilled exploratory wells, discovering heavy crude deposits, according to the company, in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Repsol has been given the go-ahead by Peru‘s ministry of energy and mines (MEM) to explore for oil in one “protected” and one proposed reserve in the north of the country in the remote Amazon rainforest bordering Ecuador.
According to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the company’s plans initially submitted to MEM in 2011 and approved this month, exploration will involve 3D seismic tests across a 680sqkm area and drilling at least 21 wells.
Although Repsol doesn’t acknowledge it, all the tests and 20 of the 21 wells fall within a proposed reserve for indigenous peoples who live in what Peruvian law calls “voluntary isolation” and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of contact with outsiders.
The creation of this reserve was proposed by regional indigenous organisation ORAI in 2003 in order to protect the region and prohibit loggers, miners and oil and gas companies – like Repsol – from operating there.
Last December the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to give $1m to Peru with the stated aim of protecting the country’s “isolated” indigenous peoples – some of which was scheduled to be spent on turning the proposed reserve in this region into a real one.
In 2007 national indigenous organisation AIDESEP appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help stop Repsol, but Peru’s ministry of justice and human rights is casting doubt on the “isolated” peoples’ existence and urging the IACHR to close the case.
In a letter to the IACHR in April last year, forwarded to AIDESEP this January, the ministry wrote:
The amount of time that has gone by (more than four years) since the appeal was made (August 2007) suggests that the situation is not a serious or urgent one, or that, in the hypothetical case it was ever serious or urgent, it isn’t any longer. … It is essential to highlight that the existence of the [indigenous] people [in voluntary isolation] is not even certain.
According to the EIA – prepared by Repsol together with a consultancy called Gema – the seismic tests will require detonating explosives underground, 42 camps, 75 “heliports”, over 1,300 workers, 3,800 “drop-zones”, and 2,343 miles (3,770kms) of 1.5 metre-wide paths cut out of the forest.
These tests are due to take place in the heart of the proposed reserve very near an area where, according to a map sent by regional indigenous organisation Orpio to the IACHR last year, “isolated” people were spotted in 2008.
Six of the wells – each one requiring 247 workers – will be inside the Pucacuro National Reserve, a supposedly “protected” 637,953 hectare area created three years ago which would be partially overlapped by the “isolated” peoples’ reserve if it was established.
The Pucacuro Reserve’s stated aim is to protect “one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation at the global level,” according to the government department responsible, SERNANP, and is renowned for its “exceptional richness of species.”
David Freitas, from Orpio, condemns Repsol’s plans to operate in this region:
The consequences for the isolated indigenous peoples could be fatal. This is a brutal, unwitting way of making sure they disappear – for nothing more than outside economic interests. Ten years have passed since the reserve was proposed but nothing concrete has been done.
Repsol says it is “aware of the region’s biological richness” and will not do anything without the government’s permission, claiming that after operating in the region “for the last 10 years” and performing “various studies” it has found no proof the “isolated” peoples exist.
Repsol’s Gonzalo Velasco Perez says:
Despite the fact we have no evidence for the existence of people in voluntary isolation, we have implemented an anthropological contingency plan that guarantees that, in the remote and improbable eventuality that there is a sighting of an uncontacted person, our team will always act appropriately by aiming to avoid contact and informing the relevant authorities.
Just two days before Repsol’s EIA was approved, the ministry of culture held a meeting in Lima about “isolated” indigenous peoples – supported by USAid and attended by government and civil society representatives from other south American countries.
“I was astonished by the hypocrisy and the way they tried to claim all is well,” says Freitas. “When asked about the proposed reserves, Peru’s representative said, ‘We’re continuing doing studies to see who, how many and where the isolated people are exactly’ and other idiotic things.”
Both AIDESEP and Orpio have already written reports listing considerable evidence of the “isolated” indigenous peoples in the region where Repsol is operating, and other companies, numerous state institutions, NGOs and individuals have acknowledged their existence.
Even Repsol itself has previously acknowledged that there are “isolated” peoples in this region, holding a public meeting in 2003, titled “The Uncontacted People”, in a town called Santa Clotilde on the River Napo downriver from its operations.
Repsol’s concession, known as “Lot 39″, is an 886,820 hectare area between the River Napo and River Tigre in Peru’s Loreto department where MEM estimates “probable” oil reserves to be larger than any other concession in the country.
According to a ground-breaking article published last month about oil and gas operations in Loreto, Repsol could reduce its impact in “Lot 39″ if it adopted industry best practices and used a different drilling technique requiring fewer wells.
“At the core of best practice is extended reach drilling (ERD) where the horizontal reach is at least two times greater than the vertical depth,” the article states. “[This] means a single drilling platform can reach multiple distant targets in an oil or gas deposit.”
Matt Finer, one of the article’s authors and a scientist at the Center for International Environmental Law, calls Repsol’s plans “troubling” on ecological, social and technical grounds:
The fact that Repsol’s planned project overlaps a national protected area and a proposed reserve for uncontacted indigenous groups in one of the most intact and biodiverse corners of the Amazon is highly troubling. It’s also troubling on technical grounds due to the lack of consideration of ERD. Our study found that instead of drilling 21 platforms, these same areas could be reached with just six by using ERD, thus greatly reducing the footprint of the project.
But Repsol’s Velasco Perez says that ERD is not applicable at this stage in their operations, ie in the exploratory phase, and that it is “only applicable in production drilling, in certain geological conditions and for certain types of wells.”
Repsol has held the license to operate in “Lot 39″ since 1999 and has already carried out some seismic tests and drilled exploratory wells, discovering heavy crude deposits, according to the company, in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Repsol has been given the go-ahead by Peru‘s ministry of energy and mines (MEM) to explore for oil in one “protected” and one proposed reserve in the north of the country in the remote Amazon rainforest bordering Ecuador.
According to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the company’s plans initially submitted to MEM in 2011 and approved this month, exploration will involve 3D seismic tests across a 680sqkm area and drilling at least 21 wells.
Although Repsol doesn’t acknowledge it, all the tests and 20 of the 21 wells fall within a proposed reserve for indigenous peoples who live in what Peruvian law calls “voluntary isolation” and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of contact with outsiders.
The creation of this reserve was proposed by regional indigenous organisation ORAI in 2003 in order to protect the region and prohibit loggers, miners and oil and gas companies – like Repsol – from operating there.
Last December the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to give $1m to Peru with the stated aim of protecting the country’s “isolated” indigenous peoples – some of which was scheduled to be spent on turning the proposed reserve in this region into a real one.
In 2007 national indigenous organisation AIDESEP appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help stop Repsol, but Peru’s ministry of justice and human rights is casting doubt on the “isolated” peoples’ existence and urging the IACHR to close the case.
In a letter to the IACHR in April last year, forwarded to AIDESEP this January, the ministry wrote:
The amount of time that has gone by (more than four years) since the appeal was made (August 2007) suggests that the situation is not a serious or urgent one, or that, in the hypothetical case it was ever serious or urgent, it isn’t any longer. … It is essential to highlight that the existence of the [indigenous] people [in voluntary isolation] is not even certain.
According to the EIA – prepared by Repsol together with a consultancy called Gema – the seismic tests will require detonating explosives underground, 42 camps, 75 “heliports”, over 1,300 workers, 3,800 “drop-zones”, and 2,343 miles (3,770kms) of 1.5 metre-wide paths cut out of the forest.
These tests are due to take place in the heart of the proposed reserve very near an area where, according to a map sent by regional indigenous organisation Orpio to the IACHR last year, “isolated” people were spotted in 2008.
Six of the wells – each one requiring 247 workers – will be inside the Pucacuro National Reserve, a supposedly “protected” 637,953 hectare area created three years ago which would be partially overlapped by the “isolated” peoples’ reserve if it was established.
The Pucacuro Reserve’s stated aim is to protect “one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation at the global level,” according to the government department responsible, SERNANP, and is renowned for its “exceptional richness of species.”
David Freitas, from Orpio, condemns Repsol’s plans to operate in this region:
The consequences for the isolated indigenous peoples could be fatal. This is a brutal, unwitting way of making sure they disappear – for nothing more than outside economic interests. Ten years have passed since the reserve was proposed but nothing concrete has been done.
Repsol says it is “aware of the region’s biological richness” and will not do anything without the government’s permission, claiming that after operating in the region “for the last 10 years” and performing “various studies” it has found no proof the “isolated” peoples exist.
Repsol’s Gonzalo Velasco Perez says:
Despite the fact we have no evidence for the existence of people in voluntary isolation, we have implemented an anthropological contingency plan that guarantees that, in the remote and improbable eventuality that there is a sighting of an uncontacted person, our team will always act appropriately by aiming to avoid contact and informing the relevant authorities.
Just two days before Repsol’s EIA was approved, the ministry of culture held a meeting in Lima about “isolated” indigenous peoples – supported by USAid and attended by government and civil society representatives from other south American countries.
“I was astonished by the hypocrisy and the way they tried to claim all is well,” says Freitas. “When asked about the proposed reserves, Peru’s representative said, ‘We’re continuing doing studies to see who, how many and where the isolated people are exactly’ and other idiotic things.”
Both AIDESEP and Orpio have already written reports listing considerable evidence of the “isolated” indigenous peoples in the region where Repsol is operating, and other companies, numerous state institutions, NGOs and individuals have acknowledged their existence.
Even Repsol itself has previously acknowledged that there are “isolated” peoples in this region, holding a public meeting in 2003, titled “The Uncontacted People”, in a town called Santa Clotilde on the River Napo downriver from its operations.
Repsol’s concession, known as “Lot 39″, is an 886,820 hectare area between the River Napo and River Tigre in Peru’s Loreto department where MEM estimates “probable” oil reserves to be larger than any other concession in the country.
According to a ground-breaking article published last month about oil and gas operations in Loreto, Repsol could reduce its impact in “Lot 39″ if it adopted industry best practices and used a different drilling technique requiring fewer wells.
“At the core of best practice is extended reach drilling (ERD) where the horizontal reach is at least two times greater than the vertical depth,” the article states. “[This] means a single drilling platform can reach multiple distant targets in an oil or gas deposit.”
Matt Finer, one of the article’s authors and a scientist at the Center for International Environmental Law, calls Repsol’s plans “troubling” on ecological, social and technical grounds:
The fact that Repsol’s planned project overlaps a national protected area and a proposed reserve for uncontacted indigenous groups in one of the most intact and biodiverse corners of the Amazon is highly troubling. It’s also troubling on technical grounds due to the lack of consideration of ERD. Our study found that instead of drilling 21 platforms, these same areas could be reached with just six by using ERD, thus greatly reducing the footprint of the project.
But Repsol’s Velasco Perez says that ERD is not applicable at this stage in their operations, ie in the exploratory phase, and that it is “only applicable in production drilling, in certain geological conditions and for certain types of wells.”
Repsol has held the license to operate in “Lot 39″ since 1999 and has already carried out some seismic tests and drilled exploratory wells, discovering heavy crude deposits, according to the company, in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Repsol has been given the go-ahead by Peru‘s ministry of energy and mines (MEM) to explore for oil in one “protected” and one proposed reserve in the north of the country in the remote Amazon rainforest bordering Ecuador.
According to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the company’s plans initially submitted to MEM in 2011 and approved this month, exploration will involve 3D seismic tests across a 680sqkm area and drilling at least 21 wells.
Although Repsol doesn’t acknowledge it, all the tests and 20 of the 21 wells fall within a proposed reserve for indigenous peoples who live in what Peruvian law calls “voluntary isolation” and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of contact with outsiders.
The creation of this reserve was proposed by regional indigenous organisation ORAI in 2003 in order to protect the region and prohibit loggers, miners and oil and gas companies – like Repsol – from operating there.
Last December the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to give $1m to Peru with the stated aim of protecting the country’s “isolated” indigenous peoples – some of which was scheduled to be spent on turning the proposed reserve in this region into a real one.
In 2007 national indigenous organisation AIDESEP appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help stop Repsol, but Peru’s ministry of justice and human rights is casting doubt on the “isolated” peoples’ existence and urging the IACHR to close the case.
In a letter to the IACHR in April last year, forwarded to AIDESEP this January, the ministry wrote:
The amount of time that has gone by (more than four years) since the appeal was made (August 2007) suggests that the situation is not a serious or urgent one, or that, in the hypothetical case it was ever serious or urgent, it isn’t any longer. … It is essential to highlight that the existence of the [indigenous] people [in voluntary isolation] is not even certain.
According to the EIA – prepared by Repsol together with a consultancy called Gema – the seismic tests will require detonating explosives underground, 42 camps, 75 “heliports”, over 1,300 workers, 3,800 “drop-zones”, and 2,343 miles (3,770kms) of 1.5 metre-wide paths cut out of the forest.
These tests are due to take place in the heart of the proposed reserve very near an area where, according to a map sent by regional indigenous organisation Orpio to the IACHR last year, “isolated” people were spotted in 2008.
Six of the wells – each one requiring 247 workers – will be inside the Pucacuro National Reserve, a supposedly “protected” 637,953 hectare area created three years ago which would be partially overlapped by the “isolated” peoples’ reserve if it was established.
The Pucacuro Reserve’s stated aim is to protect “one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation at the global level,” according to the government department responsible, SERNANP, and is renowned for its “exceptional richness of species.”
David Freitas, from Orpio, condemns Repsol’s plans to operate in this region:
The consequences for the isolated indigenous peoples could be fatal. This is a brutal, unwitting way of making sure they disappear – for nothing more than outside economic interests. Ten years have passed since the reserve was proposed but nothing concrete has been done.
Repsol says it is “aware of the region’s biological richness” and will not do anything without the government’s permission, claiming that after operating in the region “for the last 10 years” and performing “various studies” it has found no proof the “isolated” peoples exist.
Repsol’s Gonzalo Velasco Perez says:
Despite the fact we have no evidence for the existence of people in voluntary isolation, we have implemented an anthropological contingency plan that guarantees that, in the remote and improbable eventuality that there is a sighting of an uncontacted person, our team will always act appropriately by aiming to avoid contact and informing the relevant authorities.
Just two days before Repsol’s EIA was approved, the ministry of culture held a meeting in Lima about “isolated” indigenous peoples – supported by USAid and attended by government and civil society representatives from other south American countries.
“I was astonished by the hypocrisy and the way they tried to claim all is well,” says Freitas. “When asked about the proposed reserves, Peru’s representative said, ‘We’re continuing doing studies to see who, how many and where the isolated people are exactly’ and other idiotic things.”
Both AIDESEP and Orpio have already written reports listing considerable evidence of the “isolated” indigenous peoples in the region where Repsol is operating, and other companies, numerous state institutions, NGOs and individuals have acknowledged their existence.
Even Repsol itself has previously acknowledged that there are “isolated” peoples in this region, holding a public meeting in 2003, titled “The Uncontacted People”, in a town called Santa Clotilde on the River Napo downriver from its operations.
Repsol’s concession, known as “Lot 39″, is an 886,820 hectare area between the River Napo and River Tigre in Peru’s Loreto department where MEM estimates “probable” oil reserves to be larger than any other concession in the country.
According to a ground-breaking article published last month about oil and gas operations in Loreto, Repsol could reduce its impact in “Lot 39″ if it adopted industry best practices and used a different drilling technique requiring fewer wells.
“At the core of best practice is extended reach drilling (ERD) where the horizontal reach is at least two times greater than the vertical depth,” the article states. “[This] means a single drilling platform can reach multiple distant targets in an oil or gas deposit.”
Matt Finer, one of the article’s authors and a scientist at the Center for International Environmental Law, calls Repsol’s plans “troubling” on ecological, social and technical grounds:
The fact that Repsol’s planned project overlaps a national protected area and a proposed reserve for uncontacted indigenous groups in one of the most intact and biodiverse corners of the Amazon is highly troubling. It’s also troubling on technical grounds due to the lack of consideration of ERD. Our study found that instead of drilling 21 platforms, these same areas could be reached with just six by using ERD, thus greatly reducing the footprint of the project.
But Repsol’s Velasco Perez says that ERD is not applicable at this stage in their operations, ie in the exploratory phase, and that it is “only applicable in production drilling, in certain geological conditions and for certain types of wells.”
Repsol has held the license to operate in “Lot 39″ since 1999 and has already carried out some seismic tests and drilled exploratory wells, discovering heavy crude deposits, according to the company, in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
Repsol has been given the go-ahead by Peru‘s ministry of energy and mines (MEM) to explore for oil in one “protected” and one proposed reserve in the north of the country in the remote Amazon rainforest bordering Ecuador.
According to an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the company’s plans initially submitted to MEM in 2011 and approved this month, exploration will involve 3D seismic tests across a 680sqkm area and drilling at least 21 wells.
Although Repsol doesn’t acknowledge it, all the tests and 20 of the 21 wells fall within a proposed reserve for indigenous peoples who live in what Peruvian law calls “voluntary isolation” and are extremely vulnerable to any kind of contact with outsiders.
The creation of this reserve was proposed by regional indigenous organisation ORAI in 2003 in order to protect the region and prohibit loggers, miners and oil and gas companies – like Repsol – from operating there.
Last December the Inter-American Development Bank agreed to give $1m to Peru with the stated aim of protecting the country’s “isolated” indigenous peoples – some of which was scheduled to be spent on turning the proposed reserve in this region into a real one.
In 2007 national indigenous organisation AIDESEP appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to help stop Repsol, but Peru’s ministry of justice and human rights is casting doubt on the “isolated” peoples’ existence and urging the IACHR to close the case.
In a letter to the IACHR in April last year, forwarded to AIDESEP this January, the ministry wrote:
The amount of time that has gone by (more than four years) since the appeal was made (August 2007) suggests that the situation is not a serious or urgent one, or that, in the hypothetical case it was ever serious or urgent, it isn’t any longer. … It is essential to highlight that the existence of the [indigenous] people [in voluntary isolation] is not even certain.
According to the EIA – prepared by Repsol together with a consultancy called Gema – the seismic tests will require detonating explosives underground, 42 camps, 75 “heliports”, over 1,300 workers, 3,800 “drop-zones”, and 2,343 miles (3,770kms) of 1.5 metre-wide paths cut out of the forest.
These tests are due to take place in the heart of the proposed reserve very near an area where, according to a map sent by regional indigenous organisation Orpio to the IACHR last year, “isolated” people were spotted in 2008.
Six of the wells – each one requiring 247 workers – will be inside the Pucacuro National Reserve, a supposedly “protected” 637,953 hectare area created three years ago which would be partially overlapped by the “isolated” peoples’ reserve if it was established.
The Pucacuro Reserve’s stated aim is to protect “one of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation at the global level,” according to the government department responsible, SERNANP, and is renowned for its “exceptional richness of species.”
David Freitas, from Orpio, condemns Repsol’s plans to operate in this region:
The consequences for the isolated indigenous peoples could be fatal. This is a brutal, unwitting way of making sure they disappear – for nothing more than outside economic interests. Ten years have passed since the reserve was proposed but nothing concrete has been done.
Repsol says it is “aware of the region’s biological richness” and will not do anything without the government’s permission, claiming that after operating in the region “for the last 10 years” and performing “various studies” it has found no proof the “isolated” peoples exist.
Repsol’s Gonzalo Velasco Perez says:
Despite the fact we have no evidence for the existence of people in voluntary isolation, we have implemented an anthropological contingency plan that guarantees that, in the remote and improbable eventuality that there is a sighting of an uncontacted person, our team will always act appropriately by aiming to avoid contact and informing the relevant authorities.
Just two days before Repsol’s EIA was approved, the ministry of culture held a meeting in Lima about “isolated” indigenous peoples – supported by USAid and attended by government and civil society representatives from other south American countries.
“I was astonished by the hypocrisy and the way they tried to claim all is well,” says Freitas. “When asked about the proposed reserves, Peru’s representative said, ‘We’re continuing doing studies to see who, how many and where the isolated people are exactly’ and other idiotic things.”
Both AIDESEP and Orpio have already written reports listing considerable evidence of the “isolated” indigenous peoples in the region where Repsol is operating, and other companies, numerous state institutions, NGOs and individuals have acknowledged their existence.
Even Repsol itself has previously acknowledged that there are “isolated” peoples in this region, holding a public meeting in 2003, titled “The Uncontacted People”, in a town called Santa Clotilde on the River Napo downriver from its operations.
Repsol’s concession, known as “Lot 39″, is an 886,820 hectare area between the River Napo and River Tigre in Peru’s Loreto department where MEM estimates “probable” oil reserves to be larger than any other concession in the country.
According to a ground-breaking article published last month about oil and gas operations in Loreto, Repsol could reduce its impact in “Lot 39″ if it adopted industry best practices and used a different drilling technique requiring fewer wells.
“At the core of best practice is extended reach drilling (ERD) where the horizontal reach is at least two times greater than the vertical depth,” the article states. “[This] means a single drilling platform can reach multiple distant targets in an oil or gas deposit.”
Matt Finer, one of the article’s authors and a scientist at the Center for International Environmental Law, calls Repsol’s plans “troubling” on ecological, social and technical grounds:
The fact that Repsol’s planned project overlaps a national protected area and a proposed reserve for uncontacted indigenous groups in one of the most intact and biodiverse corners of the Amazon is highly troubling. It’s also troubling on technical grounds due to the lack of consideration of ERD. Our study found that instead of drilling 21 platforms, these same areas could be reached with just six by using ERD, thus greatly reducing the footprint of the project.
But Repsol’s Velasco Perez says that ERD is not applicable at this stage in their operations, ie in the exploratory phase, and that it is “only applicable in production drilling, in certain geological conditions and for certain types of wells.”
Repsol has held the license to operate in “Lot 39″ since 1999 and has already carried out some seismic tests and drilled exploratory wells, discovering heavy crude deposits, according to the company, in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
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