"AMAZON INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES PRESS ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLAINTS AGAINST OIL COMPANIES", 02 April 2022

...[T]his newsletter reported on the rising tensions between the state, the oil company PetroTal and the neighbouring indigenous communities in Block 95...

The state company Petroperú has meanwhile issued a communiqué claiming that sabotage to the northern Peru oil pipeline has caused another spill. Communities in Block 192, where operations are currently suspended, complain that constant spills from poorly maintained oil facilities are endangering their health...

...Kukama Kukamiria inhabitants of the Villa Gran Tierra and Bretaña communities, located close to PetroTal’s operations, claim to have suffered from the noise and reverberations from continual drilling for over ten years, affecting the education of children, interrupting sleep patterns and affecting mental health. The company says that the disruption is only recent...it says that noise levels do not exceed environmental standard levels.

Indigenous organisations estimate that there have been more than five oil spills in the last three years, affecting the lakes and rivers they use to irrigate their crops...PetroTal states that there have been no registered spills into the rivers, at their oil terminal or outside the drilling platform...

Indigenous organisations claim that PetroTal’s presence has created divisions within the Kukama population. 296 indigenous people from the zone of influence of the oil operations currently work for the company, which PetroTal points out is in line with its EIA commitment to contract 100% of unskilled workers locally...

Community members have staged demonstrations around the oil installations and outside the local judiciary office at Requena where hearings are being held for charges lodged against eleven of their number over the earlier protests in August 2020...