Peru The state oil company could not attract any offer to develop an oil field that overlaps the ancestral territories of several indigenous groups, which caused the celebration of communities and environmentalists on Friday.
The land package known as block 64, which overlaps the ancestral territories of Achuar, WampisAnd Chapra nations have long been the focus of Indigenous endurance.
The failed tender on Thursday by Petroperu marked a great blow to its plans to expand oil production in the region.
“It is great news in the midst of so many difficulties we have been experiencing: a relief, but we remain on alert,” said Olivia Bisa Tarko, president of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation in Loreto, Peru, to The Associated Press by phone.
Petroperu told AP in a written statement that several companies were interested in block 64, but retired at the last minute due to internal strategic changes, not external pressure.
The company denied that the indigenous opposition plays a role, stating that local communities support oil development and are urging operations to begin. He also said that the block has the approval of the required community, known as a social license, which is considered crucial for multinational oil and gas projects to continue without conflict.
Since 1995, indigenous groups have strongly opposed the development of oil in the area, blocking multiple companies due to environmental and rights concerns. In 2022, Petroperu took control of block 64, known as an oil concession where the government has granted rights to explore and extract oil within a specific territory.
“It has been a fight since the Peruvian State granted the concession without consultation or consent (of the indigenous communities),” said Bisa Tarko. ¨ For more than 25 years, we have been fighting and resisting defending our right to live in a healthy and balanced environment.
The result underlines the growing legal, environmental and reputation risks that dissuade Amazon oil development investors.
Andrew Miller, Defense Director of Amazon Watch, an organization that works to protect the tropical jungle, says that the strong local opposition has dissuaded several multinational oil companies to develop block 64 since 1995. He said that the contamination of other oil blocks has harmed other communities in the Amazon.
“The story of their indigenous sisters in neighborhood blocks are poisoned sources of water, social division and impoverishment,” said Miller. “Every day that the oil does not flow is a day when the rivers can still use for their livelihood, as they have always done.”
Miller says that despite the fact that multinational companies have invested dozens of millions of dollars in past attempts to develop block 64, none has seen a performance, which suggests that the industry now sees it as a dead endless alley. Despite this, he believes that the Peruvian government will continue to seek a way to encourage the development of block 64.
“The local communities and their allies will remain alert to this zombie project that has been killed several times, but always tries to return from the dead,” he said.
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