Peru asks Pluspetrol to leave Amazon

Peru

LIMA, February 13, 2015 – In the wake of four-day protests that left one person dead and at least 22 injured by Wednesday, Pluspetrol will leave an Amazonian gas exploration site.

On Thursday, the Peruvian government asked the Argentinian company to withdraw from the site, and the company announced later in the day that it would leave.

Pluspetrol was awarded a concession to develop block 108 in 2005, and saw its environmental impact study approved by the government last year.

Locals in the Pichanaqui district, however, remained concerned about pollution and the development’s impact on farming.

But the company says it has met all legal requirements for the development, which included securing the written consent of more than 2,000 local farmers.

Violent protests broke out on Monday, and a 25-year-old protester was killed by gunfire on Tuesday after protesters entered a military complex used by Pluspetrol. The identity of the person that shot him remains unclear.

“I am going to ask the company to leave [within] three days,” Peru’s energy minister, Eleodoro Mayorga, told a crowd in Pichanaqui on Thursday. The government has said it will review the contract with the Argentinian company.