The Inter-American Development Bank is deeply concerned about the five spills that have occurred on the Camisea natural gas liquids pipeline since 2004, including the most recent release that happened on March 4 at Kilometer 126 in the district of Echarati in the department of Cuzco. This incident, which resulted in a spill, fire and personnel injury, is now under investigation by the pipeline operator, Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP), and Peruvian authorities.
The IDB is undertaking a series of new actions to help properly address this situation and reconfirming its support and commitment to project’s environmental and social sustainability.
The IDB’s project independent engineer will perform an expanded review and analysis of the project design and construction, causes of the spills and potential actions to help prevent future spills.
The IDB fully supports the need for an immediate implementation of a pipeline integrity audit, as specified by an agreement between TGP and Peruvian authorities. An internationally recognized engineering firm should perform this audit, whose results should be disclosed to the public.
The IDB is also committed to working with all relevant project stakeholders to ensure that any spill-related environmental and social impacts are adequately resolved with subsequent full and transparent public disclosure.
The IDB also plans on accelerating the schedule to perform an independent environmental audit of the project as specified by the loan contract with TGP.
These actions go beyond those already underway. Following the previous spills, the IDB deployed independent environmental and social monitors and is contributing to the development of a corrective action plan.
The IDB is also committed to ensuring the pending issues are being adequately addressed in order for project completion to occur under the financing agreement.
In participating in the financing of the Camisea project, the Bank assumed the responsibility of monitoring social and environmental conditions associated with the project and signed agreements with the borrower to require environmental and social safeguards to ensure the project’s sustainability. The Bank reaffirms its commitment to work with the relevant entities to ensure that all the project requirements are met and that the appropriate environmental and engineering risk management and mitigation procedures are carried out.
