GeoPark Oil Company (GPRK) a High-Risk Investment, Report by Human Rights and Environmental Organization Details | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

GeoPark Oil Company (GPRK) a High-Risk Investment, Report by Human Rights and Environmental Organization Details

Risk alert based on recent field mission outlines the social, political, legal, environmental, and reputational risks for GeoPark’s operations in the Colombian and Ecuadorian Amazon

May 12, 2022 | For Immediate Release


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Oakland, CA – The GeoPark (GPRK) oil company’s current attempts to expand operations into the Colombian and Ecuadorian Amazon are creating serious human rights and environmental challenges for the company and risks for investors, Amazon Watch detailed in a 19-page risk alert published today, coinciding with GeoPark’s quarterly earnings call for investors.

These social, political, legal, and reputational risks stem from a history of contamination, lack of social license to operate in many of the blocks, and worsening situation of illegal armed actors operating in and around the company’s assets, primarily in Putumayo, Colombia. Community leaders who have publicly resisted the company on environmental and other grounds have subsequently received death threats and, in some cases, have felt obligated to flee their rural homes out of concern for their own lives. Nonetheless, GeoPark CEO Jim Park claimed in a press statement ahead of today’s earnings call, that the company is “protecting the environment and reducing emissions, [and] being a good community neighbor.”

The company faces staunch community opposition to its operation from Indigenous communities like the Siona Reservation of Buenavista, among numerous others. In the Colombian context, where violent illegal organizations are sustained by both narco- and petro-dollars, the role of community leader becomes virtually impossible, as their choice is to submit to the whims of extractive companies, flee with their lives, or face almost-certain assassination. Colombia is the world’s most dangerous country for those who speak out for environmental protections.

“Investors in GeoPark should beware: they are running enormous political, legal, reputational, climate, and social risks. GeoPark’s own filing to the SEC tells the story of community conflicts and perpetual challenges to oil blocks across the Colombian Amazon, resulting in multiple project suspensions and at least one request for project termination. On our recent visit to Colombia community leaders in Putumayo reiterated their opposition to GeoPark’s operations there, although many told us they are also terrified that speaking out publicly will get them killed,” said Moira Birss, Amazon Watch’s Director for Climate and Finance.

“When GeoPark acquired Amerisur in 2020, it also acquired the company’s legacy of social conflict and environmental damage. The disconnect between GeoPark’s lofty press release about all the assets it gained and the reality on the ground for community members is breathtaking. Whether knowingly or out of ignorance, GeoPark entered a conflict zone in which the main illegal armed group – the Comandos de la Frontera – enriches itself through extortion or skimming off contracts. The Comandos then issue death threats against GeoPark’s detractors in the region, though the company pleads ignorance,” said Andrew Miller, Amazon Watch’s Advocacy Director.

Background

For the last eight years, Amazon Watch has accompanied Indigenous communities negatively affected by GeoPark in Peru, Amerisur in Colombia, and now GeoPark / Nueva Amerisur in the Colombian Amazon, in collaboration with other human rights organizations. An Amazon Watch field mission spent five days in the Colombian Amazon in early May of 2022, meeting with community representatives impacted by at least four separate oil concessions currently held by GeoPark.

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