'Oil, monkeys, guerrillas: Chinese companies face problems in the Amazon', 30 November 2017

[Sinochem] witnessed political, economic and environmental changes in Colombia – it has worked in the country since 2009, when it purchased UK firm Emerald Energy...The acquisition gave Sinochem a number of oilfields in Colombia. In 2013...Emerald Energy announced the exploration of... the Nogal block in Caquetá [which] was regarded as enjoying "low prospecting risk, high resouce potential". But the development at Nogal hasn’t received a wholehearted welcome in... Caquetá. There is much debate about the project in the village of Valparaíso [one of the Amazonian regions that the projects encraches on]. “We’re farmers, the oil industry won’t mean anything for us,” says the youthful Rigoberto Valencia, the most talkative of the group. He worries the seismic testing will affect the local water supply. “The farm is our only livelihood.” Wastewater and possible leaks from oil drilling are a concern for the farmers. In 2014, Emerald Energy arranged a number of meetings in Caquetá to tell community representatives about the project. The environmental impact assessment said there would only be “moderate negative impacts” on water quality. But...the villagers are also critical of some of the report’s conclusions, particularly those regarding one of the area’s endangered animals, a monkey called the Caquetá titi (Callicebus caquetensis). In June 2015, worried villagers of Valparaíso decided to step up their efforts, blockading the only road to one of the seismic testing points to prevent the company from carrying out its work. The riot police... used tear gas ... one villager, Juan Pablo Chávez, was left bleeding.