A second hydrocarbon boom threatens the Peruvian Amazon

[Judi Lynn]

Public release date: 18-Feb-2010
A second hydrocarbon boom threatens the Peruvian Amazon
The amount of area leased to oil and gas companies is on track to reach around 70 percent of the region

A rapid and unprecedented proliferation of oil and gas concessions threatens the megadiverse Peruvian Amazon. The amount of area leased is on track to reach around 70% of the region, threatening biodiversity and indigenous people. This is one of the central conclusions from a pair of researchers from the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Washington DC-based NGO Save America's Forests, who have, for the first time, documented the full history of hydrocarbon activities in the region and made projections about expected levels of activity in the near future.

The study, conducted by Martí Orta and Matt Finer, researchers at ICTA and Save America's Forests, respectively, and published in Environmental Research Letters, reconstructs the full history of hydrocarbon activities in the region and makes projections for the next five years. Researchers have found that more of the Peruvian Amazon has recently been leased to oil and gas companies than at any other time on record. There are now 52 active hydrocarbon concessions covering over 41% of the Peruvian Amazon, up from just 7% in 2003. The authors warn that the region has now entered the early stages of a second hydrocarbon exploration boom and that the amount of area leased to oil and gas companies is on track to reach around 70% of the region.

The collected data reveals an extensive hydrocarbon history for one of the greatest rainforests on Earth—well over 100,000 km of seismic lines and nearly 700 wells have resulted in the extraction of nearly 1 billion barrels of oil over the past 70 years from the Peruvian Amazon, the second largest land area of the Amazon Basin after Brazil. The first major hydrocarbon exploration boom took place in the Peruvian Amazon in the early to mid 1970s, immediately followed by an exploitation boom from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.

The authors also discovered a number of interesting trends. For example, there has been a steady decline in Amazonian oil production ever since its peak in the early 1980s. In contrast, natural gas production from the Peruvian Amazon has been skyrocketing since 2004 and the start of production at Camisea. The year 2009 had the lowest oil output in over 30 years, but marked the sixth consecutive year of rapidly increasing natural gas production.

The vast majority of these concessions overlap sensitive areas, such as official state natural protected areas and indigenous peoples' lands. Nearly one-fifth of the protected areas and over half of all titled indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon are now covered by hydrocarbon concessions. And perhaps most disturbingly, over 60% of the area proposed as reserves for indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation are covered by oil concessions. The authors stress that one of the more troubling aspects of the new boom is the expanding hydrocarbon frontier, as much of the last remote and pristine tracts of rainforest left in the Amazon are now fair game for oil and gas companies.

More:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-02/uadb-ash021810.php

[protocol rv]

1. This isn't the full story

In Venezuela, all the areas with hydrocarbons have been leased, and the country does well living from the income. It makes sense for the Peruvian government to lease the mineral rights.

According to Peruvian law, leaseholds for mineral rights do not give rights to the surface, only to the minerals below the surface, and the companies have to go through a second permit process to work ON the surface, and this is very similar to the way it works almost everywhere, including Venezuela. Thus the story isn't complete.

The question is, what safeguards does the Peruvian government put in place to make sure that, when it issues the permits as a result of this SECOND process, there isn't undue damage to the environment or to native communities? For example, modern seismic aquisition techniques use radio to send the signals from the geophones, therefore the damage to the forest is minimal, and easy to remedy, if the program is carried out using helicopters. The same applies to exploration wells.

Conclusion? Seems aren't always what they seem, when we see in the media stories which only tell us part of the whole story, we can reach the wrong conclusion.

[Peace Patriot]

2. You sound like an Exxon Mobil or Chevron TV commercial.

And it seems to escape you that Peru has a RIGHTWING, corporate-friendly government (and one with a 25% approval rating!) who open fired from a helicopter gunship on Indigenous protestors trying to protect the Amazon from further ravages. They will find--and are finding--any excuse to serve their corporate paymasters.

It doesn't matter what is THEORETICALLY possible--with "modern seismic aquisition techniques," or modern anything else--when you have rapacious global corporate predators combined with corrupt rightwing government.

We saw what that combo does in what is called the "Rainforest Chernoybal" in Ecuador--spills of oil and toxic sludge twice as bad as the Exxon-Valdez--destroying fisheries, grossly polluting once pristine rivers and creeks, and sickening thousands of people, from the Ecuadoran Amazon all the way to Peru.

That's what rightwing government does. And the Indigenous tribes in Alaska and the Indigenous tribes in Ecuador have yet to collect a dime in damages. That's what rightwing government is FOR--to allow the VIOLATION of so-called permits with complete impunity.

[protocol rv]

3. Peru's government isn't right wing

And there's no Rainforest Chernobyl in Ecuador. There's some pollution, most of it caused by the state oil company, Ecopetrol. As far as I know, left wing government also take from indigenous people. Ask the people of Kyrgiztan, Tatarstan, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and others, if their rights were respected by the Soviets.

[Peace Patriot]

9. There IS a "rainforest Chernoybl" in Ecuador!

The rainforest Chernobyl

San Francisco Bay GuardianApril 27, 2005

By Camille T. Taiara

CHEVRONTEXACO INVESTORS ARE in for an unsettling interlude when they gather for the annual shareholders' meeting at company headquarters in San Ramon April 27. Two indigenous Amazonian leaders, as well as numerous concerned local citizens, are set to interrupt the drab, predictable corporate discourse with testimonials about Texaco's toxic legacy in Ecuador.
Humberto Piaguaje, who's lost two family members to different strains of cancer, will be among them. Another relative -- a nephew -- recently contracted the disease, and the family lacks the money to pay for the chemotherapy he needs, Piaguaje told the Bay Guardian.

"Crude Reflections: ChevronTexaco's Rainforest Legacy," an exhibit of 50 photographs taken by Bay Area photographers Lou Dematteis and Kayana Szymczak and documenting what some experts say is the worst environmental devastation caused by an oil company in the history of the planet, opened at a nearby restaurant April 25 and will help reinforce the Ecuadorans' case.

"We've taken delegations of investors to the region" to show them firsthand the devastation caused by Texaco's oil development projects over the two decades ending in 1992, Amazon Watch associate director Shannon Wright told us. Now, with the photo exhibit, which will tour several cities, they're bringing the story to the American public.

The activity surrounding ChevronTexaco's shareholders' meeting indicates an important maturation of the global struggle against the human and environmental devastation caused by fossil fuel development abroad.

That's the good news.

But increasingly, oil industry analysts are pointing to an impending crisis that's likely to result in a surge of these kinds of offenses around the globe, as oil companies vie for a dwindling supply of the black gold that fuels our economy.

(MORE)

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/ecuador/3031.html

--


Chevrons Rainforest Chernobyl
01:37 - 5 months ago
In 1964, Texaco (now Chevron), discovered oil in the remote northern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, known as the "Oriente." The indigenous inhabitants of this pristine ...
youtube.com

Watch video here
A Rainforest Chernobyl
5 months ago
chevrontoxico.com In 1964 Texaco - now Chevron - began operations in Oriente in northern Ecuador, on the Amazon. Cost cutting in operations saved $3 gallon by dumping toxic ...
current.com

In Focus Ecuador: The New Law of the Jungle
07:22 - 1 year ago
Pulitzer Center's Kelly Hearn is in Ecuador covering what has been dubbed Ecuador's Rainforest Chernobyl and it could turn out to be one of the biggest legal environmental ...
youtube.com

A Rainforest Chernobyl
// added may 08, 2009
http://current.com/items/90029946_a-rainforest-chernobyl.htm

Justicia Now” Documents “Rainforest Chernobyl”
Written by Shirley Siluk Gregory
Published on November 26th, 2007
http://planetsave.com/blog/2007/11/26/justicia-now-documents-rainforest-chernobyl/

---

Chevron (CVX) in the Amazon – Oil Rights or Human Rights? Texaco's legacy, Chevron's responsibility

"Our health has been damaged seriously by the contamination caused by Texaco. Many people in our community now have red stains on their skin and others have been vomiting and fainting. Some little children have died because their parents did not know they should not drink the river water."
Excerpt: Affidavit of the Secoya tribe given by Elias Piaguaie -Aguinda, et al v. Texaco Inc. - Case # 93-CV-7527.

The human rights situation of Indigenous peoples and environmentalists in Ecuador continues to be a serious concern for Amnesty International. For over four decades, Indigenous communities have witnessed multinational oil companies cut through the Ecuadorian Amazon and their ancestral lands in search of the country's vast petroleum resources. Testimonies by members of these communities, verified by independent health studies and reports (including "Amazon Crude" by Judith Kimerling) have described how oil companies have left dead rivers, road-scarred forests, polluted air, and daily discharges of millions of gallons of toxic waste in their wake that are affecting the daily lives of the communities in the area.

(MORE)
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business-and-human-rights/chevron-corp/chevron-in-ecuador/page.do?id=1101670

[Bacchus39]

4. and what about the indigenous who live on Lake Maracaibo??

that's ok?? what about further exploration in the Orinoco watershed?? here let me just summarize this quick. Oil production in Venezuela = good oil production in Peru = bada

[protocol rv]

6. Indigenous? Heck, I'm from Maracaibo too

There are no "indigenous" on lake Maracaibo, unless you refer to a few families in Santa Rosa del Agua, where I go to the palafito restaurant to eat fish. As you know we got rid of them a long time ago. And don't worry about exploration on the Orinoco watershed, there's nothing there to explore for.

[Bacchus39]

8. I thought many of the oil companies were seeking to operate there???

in the Orinoco region

[Judi Lynn]

5. Under siege: oil and gas concessions cover 41 percent of the Peruvian Amazon

Under siege: oil and gas concessions cover 41 percent of the Peruvian Amazon
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
February 16, 2010

A new study in the Environmental Research Letter finds that the Peruvian Amazon is being overrun by the oil and gas industries. According to the study 41 percent of the Peruvian Amazon is currently covered by 52 active oil and gas concessions, nearly six times as much land as was covered in 2003.

"We found that more of the Peruvian Amazon has recently been leased to oil and gas companies than at any other time on record," explained co-author Dr. Matt Finer of the Washington DC-based Save America’s Forests in a press release. The concessions even surpass the oil boom in the region during the 1970s and 80s, which resulted in extensive environmental damage.

The authors say that what's even more worrisome is that many of today's concessions infringe on state protected areas and indigenous lands.

Nearly one-fifth of the protected areas and over half of all titled indigenous lands in the Peruvian Amazon are now covered by hydrocarbon concessions," says co-author Martí Orta-Martínez of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. "And perhaps most disturbingly, we found that over 60 percent of the area proposed as reserves for indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation are covered by oil concessions. These uncontacted people are extremely vulnerable to outside illness."

Despite concerns for the environment and indigenous peoples, the boom shows no sign of slowing down. According to study the amount of area leased to oil and gas is on track to nearly double, reaching approximately 70 percent of the total Peruvian Amazon. Already, over the next five years seismic testing and well production are set to hit levels not seen since the oil boom of the 1970s.

"The first hydrocarbon boom of the early 1970s brought with it severe negative environmental and social impacts," said Orta-Martínez. "Unfortunately, all indications are that this second boom will as well."

More:
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0216-hance_peruoil.html

[protocol rv]

7. Big deal

So? it doesn't mean oil companies will have the land. They'll just take a few seismic readings, and won't find oil or gas over most of this territory. If they do, then the government has the final decision regarding whether they get to produce the oil or not. It's the same in Venezuela, or anywhere else. If you guys don't like oil extraction, then stop driving those fat hog cars you drive in the US. It's up to you.