Spain’s energy giant Repsol has confirmed that it will invest $500 million per year until a $6 billion oil and natural gas project in southeastern Peru is completed, daily La República reported Wednesday.
“We hope to invest $500 million every year, over the course of the next five years,” said Repsol Executive president, Antonio Brufau. “This amount, added to what has already been invested, will total $6 billion.”
In Peru, the third largest recipient of Repsol investment after Spain and Argentina, Repsol has a large stake in the consortium that is developing the Camisea natural gas field. This group of oil companies generated royalties of $352 million in 2008, which is 16.9 percent more than in 2007.
The Camisea Gas Project, known as Block-88, is located in Peru’s south-eastern Amazon basin and thought to hold some of the largest undeveloped gas reserves in South America. It’s one of Latin America’s key energy infrastructure projects. Repsol aims to export natural gas to Mexico by 2010.
But for the Interethnic Defense Front of the Peruvian Jungle, or Aidesep, and other environmental groups, Peru’s $1.6 billion Camisea Gas Project is possibly the most damaging project in the Amazon Basin. Seventy-five percent of the Camisea project extends over the Kugapakori-Nahua state natural reserve, where several indigenous tribes have chosen to live in isolation. Environmental activists say the fragile ecosystem is the last place on earth fossil fuel drilling should take place. Repeated leaks and explosions have plagued the twin pipelines that cut through a zone to transport the gas for processing on Peru’s coast.
