Hunt Oil Criticized for Choosing Destructive Practices and for Repeated Spills in the Most Biodiverse Rainforest on Earth
Project Revenues Fuel Peru’s Military Spending
In a letter sent to Hunt Oil’s CEO Ray Hunt on Friday, environmental groups warned the Texas Company that its abysmal record of Amazon destruction in its Camisea project must be reversed or the company will risk losing face and financiers. The letter was sent after Hunt’s Peru Camisea project, considered one of the most damaging “development” projects in the Amazon rainforest suffered its fourth major gas spill in less than fifteen months of operation.
The most recent spill occurred inside the indigenous Machiguenga Communal Reserve and involved close to 6,000 barrels. The Camisea project has caused significant damage to the Lower Urubamba Basin–one of the most biodiverse and fragile ecosystems on earth – and devastated the health and livelihood of local indigenous populations who rely entirely on the local rivers for their survival. This includes several groups who shun all contact with the outside world.
In a letter to CEO Ray Hunt, Amazon Watch, Oxfam America, Environmental Defense, SEEN, World Wildlife Fund, Friends of the Earth and the Amazon Alliance called on Hunt to “halt the pipeline’s operations and conduct a comprehensive hydrostatic test of the entire pipeline” in order to prevent future spills. Full text of the letter is available at www.amazonwatch.org.
The letter also urged the company to reconsider Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) in Camisea’s second phase. So far Hunt Oil has refused. ERD is a state-of-the-art technology that would allow gas extraction without intruding deeper into sensitive rainforest habitat and traditional indigenous territories: “Hunt Oil has the opportunity to become a leader in the oil industry and establish a positive precedent in the ecologically fragile Amazon region. But…Hunt must act now in order to avoid potentially damaging repercussions to the company’s reputation and project’s finances.
These are not idle threats. In 2004 this coalition successfully convinced the US Export-Import Bank to take the unprecedented step of rejecting a $213 million loan request for the Camisea project, a stance subsequently adopted by other export credit agencies.
The coalition questions Hunt Oil’s assertion that the Camisea project is helping Peru develop. To date Peru’s armed forces have received $40 million in Camisea revenues with an additional $2.55 billion expected over the next 20 years. In fact, forty percent of the national government project royalties are destined for Peru’s military despite the military’s appalling human rights record. Funds going to arms purchasing reduces available funds to meet the needs of the more than 15 million people who live in poverty in Peru, over half of the total population.
