Peru Indians Block Amazon River After Oil Spill

Peruvian indigenous groups blocked a major river in the country’s Amazon region on Wednesday in protest of a recent oil spill of some 2,500 barrels in the world’s largest rainforest, the government said.

The spill occurred on September 16 and affected several indigenous communities in the northeastern region of Loreto in Peru. Although the country’s environment ministry estimated the spill at 2,500 barrels, state oil company Petroperú PETROBC1.LM said it did not yet have an estimate.

Petroperú said in a statement that the spill was the result of “intentional” damage caused to an oil pipeline operated by the company. The pipeline transports crude oil from the Amazon to Peru’s desert coast for refining.

The pipeline has been the scene of several oil spills in recent years.

The government said in a statement that communities blocked the Marañón River, a key tributary of the Amazon, preventing officials from taking water samples and distributing medicine to affected indigenous communities.

Reuters was unable to reach a community representative for comment.

The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world and scientists believe that its preservation is key to avoiding catastrophic climate change.

Peru has the second largest portion of the Amazon after Brazil.

Although Peru is a very small producer of oil, generating only about 40,000 barrels per day, its oil fields are concentrated in the Amazon.

The incident is at least the second major oil spill to occur in the South American country this year, after Spain’s Repsol REP.MC spilled more than 10,000 barrels into the Pacific in January from a tanker that was unloading at a refinery. of the company near the capital of Peru, Lima.

The Petroperú spill is the 11th to occur so far this year in the Amazon, Petroperú said, but the first to flow directly into a river in the region.

The government of left-wing President Pedro Castillo has said it wants Petroperú to boost production, especially at its dormant Lot 192, the country’s largest oil field, located deep in the Amazon.

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