Broadcast Quality Footage of Pipeline Impacts Available Upon Request
(Washington D.C.) – An independent report into Peru’s Camisea gas project, a major recipient of Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funding, has concluded that the spill-prone pipeline was shoddily built by unqualified welders using corroded piping.
Released today, the report by non-profit technical consultancy E-Tech International comes as the IDB holds its third semi-annual public “consultation” regarding Camisea at its headquarters in Washington D.C.
Environmental and development organizations including Amazon Watch, Amazon Alliance, Environmental Defense, among others will attend the IDB meeting today to confront IDB executives over Camisea’s multiple failings. E-Tech International is scheduled to present its report to IDB officials at 9:30 am and will brief reporters during a conference call today at
1 pm EST.
The E-Tech International report concludes:
• At least half of the Camisea piping was surplus from other projects in Brazil and elsewhere and badly corroded;
• Pipeline welders had inadequate training and were uncertified;
• Soil stabilization around the pipeline was inadequate;
• The pipeline was laid precipitately on difficult terrain to avoid onerous late-completion fines that could have totaled $90 million.
• Nearly 185 kilometers of the pipeline runs high potential for future ruptures.
The report included analysis of internal project documents obtained by E-Tech International. In the executive summary, report author Carlos Salazar Tirado, an engineer and former Camisea pipeline inspector, warns that more spills are likely, potentially shutting down the gas supply to Lima, unless urgent action is taken. Specifically, he calls for radiographic analysis of the welding, monitored by independent observers, as well as the use of other leak detection technology including intelligent pigs and hydrostatic testing.
The Camisea gas project has been a running controversy in Peru and at the IDB since breaking ground in 2001. The upstream component is located in one of the most biodiverse tropical rainforests in the world, home to thousands of indigenous peoples, including some of the last indigenous groups living in isolation anywhere in the Amazon.
The project has had devastating repercussions for those communities and on the natural environment, despite the warnings of Peruvian and International civil society groups. Under intense pressure, the IDB imposed a range of environmental and social conditions on the project consortia, led by Dallas-based Hunt Oil and Argentina’s Techint, but failed to adequately enforce these conditions. In the first 15 months of operation, the pipeline suffered 4 ruptures and three major spills.
Despite the IDB and Peruvian government’s rhetoric of “development” and “poverty alleviation”, 40 percent of the Camisea royalties paid to the central government have been designated for arms procurement.
Although “Block 88”, the first phase of the Camisea project, is already operating, the E-Tech International report’s warnings are timely. The pipeline feeder network will soon be expanding to serve other nearby concessions, spreading the critical, negative environmental and social impacts across a much larger area of the Peruvian Amazon. One such concession, known as “Camisea II,” which involves many of the same companies, broke ground last month. The IDB expects to be approached for more funding for the second phase of Camisea. So far, neither the IDB, the Peruvian government, nor the private companies involved appear to have learnt any lessons from the disastrous first phase.
Where and When:
The Camisea consultation meeting will take place at the IDB headquarters at the Enrique Iglesias Conference Center, room CR-300, 1330 New York Ave NW Washington DC20577, from 9am to 5pm on February 27. It is open to the media. E-Tech International will present its report at the IDB meeting at approximately 9:30 am.
E-Tech will also participate in a Press Conference Call on Monday at 1 pm EST. To join the conference call, dial 1-800-610-4500, code 778899. The full report will be available at 8am EST online at E-Tech International’s website: www.etechinternational.org, and upon request via email to media@amazonwatch.org.
