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Peru to ask Pluspetrol to exit Amazonian community after deadly protests

Xinhua, February 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

Peru said Thursday it will ask multinational consortium Pluspetrol to withdraw from an Amazonian town, after the death of a young man in street protests against pollution from oil exploration.

Members of Peru's Pichanaki community, protesting pollution from oil exploration in their homeland, clashed with riot police Wednesday, leading to the death of a 22-year-old and leaving 37 others with gunshot wounds.

Peruvian Energy and Mining Minister Eleodoro Mayorga, addressing the community, said "I know that one of your biggest demands is the withdrawal of the Pluspetrol company. I'm going to ask the company to leave Pichanaki in three days, the amount of time it needs to leave, and to take everything it brought with it, " state news agency Andina reported.

Pichanaki, located 380 km southeast of the capital Lima, in the Amazonian district of Junin, is a leading coffee and cacao growing region.

The protests, which included local traders, indigenous communities and unions, began Monday, aiming to put a stop to the company's activity before it pollutes area rivers and forests.

Pluspetrol, meanwhile, said it planned to leave Pichanaki in three days' time, as its preliminary work there was practically wrapped up.

"These logistical activities are 90 percent complete, we are in the final days," the firm's manager of institutional relations, Daniel Guerra, told TV Peru, Andina said. "In three days we could comply with that."

Pluspetrol has so far carried out only exploratory work, said Guerra, adding that "we haven't drilled any wells, or produced anything." He denied the company has polluted in the area.

The company will continue to work at another site, where the firm hopes to drill a well "to bring development" to the Amazonian region, Andina said.

The Argentine company, according to its website, has experience in operating in "inhospitable zones ... with technical expertise in ... heavy crude extraction in remote zones, exploitation of mature fields and marginal areas."

Its first operations were in Argentina and it is currently Peru 's "largest oil and gas producer." Endite