Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 11 2020

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 On March 16, benchmark WTI oil prices slipped below $30 a barrel during trading, and Brent crude plunged by nearly 10% to close at $31.92. The outlook remains bearish, owing to fears that the coronavirus pandemic will wipe out more oil demand than previously anticipated.
Meanwhile, Ecuador’s government is also heavily indebted to Chinese creditors and obligated to supply crude under oil-for-loans deals with state-controlled companies such as PetroChina.
The country only returned to the spot market just over a year ago, following a gap of more than three years when it had no oil left because it was all tied up in those oil-for-loans deals.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Monday that “vulnerable” produc- ing countries such as Ecuador, Iraq and Nigeria would be particularly hard hit by the collapse in oil prices. The Paris-based agency said that the price slump threatened to cut the revenues of some countries by up to 85%. ™
PERU
Peru’s tribal leaders complain to OECD about Amazon pollution
INDIGENOUS leaders from Peru have filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the international economic monitoring group, about Pluspetrol’s operations in the area of the Amazon River.
In the complaint, they demanded that the Amsterdam-based energy company clean up decades of pollution in Peru’s Amazon region. They also called on Pluspetrol to stop using so-called “letterbox” holding companies in tax haven states in order to avoid paying taxes in developing countries.
Aurelio Chino, the president of the Quechua Pastaza Indigenous Federation (FEDIQUEP), declared that the firm ought to assume respon- sibility for pollution. He also argued that Plus- petrol should find a solution for contamination alleged to stem from oil exploration in Quechua indigenous territories.
“We have come to the Netherlands in search of justice because there is nowhere else to go,” the Peruvian indigenous leader was quoted as saying by the local daily El Economista America Peru. “We hope that ... the Dutch government can convince Pluspetrol to take responsibility for the terrible damage it has done to our peo- ples,”headded.
The complaint was lodged by FEDIQUEP
alongside three other indigenous federations known as FECONACOR, OPIKAFPE and ACODECOSPAT. Together, these organisations represent more than one hundred Quechua communities in the regions around the Pastaza, Corrientes and Marañón rivers.
Pluspetrol has worked in those areas on Block 192 and Block 8, both in the northern Loreto region.
Latin America-focused Pluspetrol is con- trolled by the Dutch holding company Pluspet- rol Resources. The firm is currently the largest oil and gas producer in Peru and has other assets in Colombia and Bolivia. It is also active in Argentina and began working in that country in 1976.
As of press time, Pluspetrol had not responded to requests for comment on the indigenous group’s move.
FEDIQUEP’s complaint was submitted to the Dutch contact point for the OECD in The Hague. It refers to a contamination case at the Shanshococha lagoon, used by Quechua peo- ples in the Pastaza River area for food supplies, El Economista said.
“After it was discovered to be seriously con- taminated in May 2012, with its surface covered byathicklayerofcrudeoil,governmentofficials visited the site,” the complaint reportedly said. ™
Peru LNG reports exports up in February
PERU LNG, the operator of a natural gas liq- uefaction plant and export terminal in Pampa Melchorita, increased exports in February.
According to data published last week by the national oil company (NOC) Perupetro, the
Peru LNG consortium loaded five vessels with 795,576 cubic metres of LNG in December. This
was up by nearly 14% on the figure reported
in the same month of 2019, when the group exported 698,029 cubic metres of LNG. 
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 11 19•March•2020