Lima, Peru – Peru’s Camisea gas pipeline has leaked for the fifth time in 18 months, causing a fire and injuring two people, its operator said on Sunday, following warnings of ruptures because of poor pipe construction.
Pipeline operator Transportadora de Gas del Peru (TgP), a consortium led by Argentina’s Techint, said the 430-mile (720-km) pipe on Saturday leaked 750 cubic meters of natural gas in Peru’s southern jungle region, home to one of the world’s most biodiverse rain forests.
“The estimated volume of liquid lost is 750 cubic meters. A fire also broke out at the leakage point, which is burning up the spilled liquid,” TgP said in a statement.
The company said one person suffered burns from the leak and another inhaled gas.
Peru’s Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said the leak may have been caused by sabotage on the pipeline. TgP was not immediately available for comment.
The pipeline, which was built with Inter-American Development Bank funding, has leaked five times since it began pumping natural gas to Lima in mid-2004, causing growing anger among communities living along the pipeline
route.
San Diego-based environmental consultancy E-Tech International last week handed a report to the IADB to warn the pipeline was likely to leak at six points because of rusty, badly welded pipes. TgP has rejected the report’s
findings.
Argentinian oil group Pluspetrol, Hunt Oil of the United States, South Korea’s SK Corp., Algeria’s Sonatrach, Peruvian builder Grana y Montero and French utility Suez also are partners in TgP.
According to the E-Tech report, at least half of the Camisea tubing used in the pipeline construction was left over from other projects and was severely corroded.
The pipeline previously leaked in November, spilling 6,000 barrels of fuel into the jungle, according to the government, which has warned TgP it could cancel its operating contract if future leaks occur.
Peru hopes to export Camisea gas to Mexico from 2010.
