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Oil firm backed by Scots investment company pulls out of Peruvian Amazon project
Billy Briggs on July 21, 2020
An oil firm backed by a Scots investment company and accused of endangering an Indigenous group under lockdown in the Peruvian Amazon, has pulled out of a controversial exploration project.
We reported last week that Standard Life Aberdeen, based in Edinburgh, invests in Chilean company Geopark, which has been at the centre of a dispute over its plans to extract oil in the Loreto region of Peru.
The Wampis Nation, a local group who fear that Covid-19 could be genocidal for Indigenous peoples as the pandemic spreads in the Amazon, took legal action against Geopark, accusing its workers of entering its territories despite a state of emergency in Peru due to coronavirus.
The Wampis filed a criminal complaint against Geopark in May, alleging the firm was putting lives at risk amongst the communities of the Morona River.
The Indigineous group also called on Standard Life Aberdeen to stop investing in Geopark.
Geopark, which strongly denied the allegations made by the Wampis, receives investment from Standard Life Aberdeen. According to filings on 31 March, the Edinburgh firm’s shares were valued at around £12m.
Geopark has now said it will no longer continue with its plans to extract oil in the area. The company said in a statement it had informed Petroperú, a firm owned by the Peruvian state, that it was pulling out of the project.
More:
https://theferret.scot/oil-firm-backed-standard-life-aberdeen-peru-amazon/