Puno residents protest Inambari hydroelectric project

Conditions in Peru’s southern Puno department are reportedly returning to normal as a 48-hour protest against a multi-billion dollar hydroelectric project winds down on Friday, according to state-run news agency Andina.

More than 600 people from the district of San Gabán arrived in the city of Puno on Thursday to protest the construction of the Inambari dam. The protestors blocked highways, while business owners and schools shut down as a precaution against outbreaks of violence, the Coordinadora Nacional del Radio reported.

The location of the Inambari dam is planned along the border region of the Puno, Cusco, and Madre de Dios departments. It is Peru’s largest hydroelectric project and the fifth largest in Latin America. The concession holder, Brazilian consortium Egasur, is expected to invest $4 billion in the project, which will have an installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

However, the project is also expected to have serious environmental and social impacts. The dam will flood around 150 square miles of land, including parts of the Transoceanic highway, and threaten the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park. It is also expected to displace more than 3,200 people from San Gabán.

Energy and Mines Minister Pedro Sánchez told daily La República that the government wants to relocate that population to urban centers in the region.

Most of the energy the dam will produce is expected to be exported to Brazil.

Natural gas from Camisea decreases electricity costs by 30 percent

Deputy Energy Minister Daniel Cámac said Tuesday the cost of electricity in Peru has decreased by 30 percent due to natural gas production in the Camisea gas fields, located in the country’s south-eastern Amazon basin. Cámac said some companies have been able to save more than 50 percent of their production costs after switching to natural gas, state news agency Andina reported. Read more…

Spanish-Peruvian company to invest $280 million in wind power stations

The general manager of Iberoperuana Inversiones, Juan Coronado, said Monday the Spanish-Peruvian consortium is planning to invest $280 million to build two wind power stations in northern Peru, state news agency Andina reported.

Coronado said they are to invest $210 million in the construction of a wind farm in Cupisnique, located about 55 miles north of Trujillo in the La Libertad department, which will produce 80 megawatts of energy. Read more…

Study: Peru Amazon entering into second energy boom

A new study examining hydrocarbon activities in Peru’s Amazon rainforest over the past 40 years says the region is in the early stages of a second energy boom that could have major environmental and social impacts.

The study, published in the Environmental Research Letters journal, says 42 of the 52 active Amazon hydrocarbon concessions were awarded between 2005 and 2009.  State hydrocarbons promotion agency Perupetro reportedly signed 13 new Amazonian contracts in both 2005 and 2006, setting single year contract signing records. Read more…

Investment in Peru’s main infrastructure projects may exceed $2 billion in 2010

The executive director of Peru’s private investment promotion agency, or ProInversión, said Friday investment in the country’s main infrastructure projects in 2010 is expected to reach more than $2 billion, according to state news agency Andina. Read more…

Adex: Peru’s export revenue falls by 14 percent in 2009

The Peruvian Association of Exporters, or Adex, announced Friday that Peruvian exports decreased by 14 percent in 2009. The total value of Peru’s exports totaled $26.5 billion last year, down from $30.6 billion in 2008, state news agency Andina reported. Read more…

Andean Development Corporation provides financing for biofuels project

The Andean Development Corporation (CAF) announced today a $65 million loan to Maple Energy to develop a biofuels project in Peru’s northern Piura department. The loan will finance the construction of a distillery that will have a capacity to produce 35 million gallons of ethanol a year, which will be exported to markets in Europe, daily Gestión reported. Read more…

Cade 2009 – Peru’s 47th Annual Business Conference opens in Arequipa

Peru’s leading business executives, investors and politicians were in Arequipa today for the opening of the country’s major business event of the year, the Cade annual executives’ conference.  

The theme of the conference this year is Our Future, Our Opportunity, and the opening address was given by the former Inter-American Development Bank chief and current Ibero-American Secretary General, Enrique Iglesias. Other speakers during the three-day meeting include Alberto Benavides de la Quintana, founder and patriarch of the Buenaventura mining group; Mario Brescia Cafferata of the Brescia group, whose interests include the Banco Continental and the Libertador hotel chain; and Dionisio Romero, head of the Romero Group which includes the Banco de Credito.

Speakers over the next two days include a number of international leaders, such as Korean educator Ki Seok Kim from the University of Seoul; the minister of Education of Colombia, Cecilia María Vélez, Chilean economist Sebastian Edwards, and the World Marketing Director for Google, Bernardo Hernandez.

 The conference ends on Saturday, traditionally with an address by the President.

Camisea to supply gas to CF Industries petrochemical plant in southern Peru

CF Industries signed a $2 billion agreement Oct.13 with Peru’s Camisea consortium for the supply of natural gas for its proposed nitrogen fertilizer complex, to be built in San Juan de Marcona on Peru’s south coast.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed at the government palace in Lima with President Alan Garcia, CF Industries will buy up to 99 million cubic feet of gas per day from the Camisea consortium, which includes Pluspetrol Peru Corporation, Pluspetrol Camisea, Hunt Oil, SK Energy of Korea, Tecpetrol del Peru, Sonatrach Peru and Repsol.

The chairman and CEO of the Deerfield, Illinois-based company, Stephen R. Wilson, said in Lima that an “advantageous pricing structure” and an assured supply of natural gas were the foundations for the company’s investment initiative. “We recognize the efforts of the consortium and are especially grateful for the support of the federal government of Peru throughout this process,” he said.

CF Industries is a major producer and distributor of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products. It operates world-scale nitrogen fertilizer plants in Donaldsonville, Louisiana and Medicine Hat, Alberta, and conducts phosphate mining and manufacturing operations in Central Florida. It also owns a 50 percent interest in Keytrade AG, a global fertilizer trading organization headquartered near Zurich.

Alan García: Peru-Brazil relations at “highest and most creative point in history”

Peru President Alan García congratulated Brazil as the country celebrated 187 years of independence on Tuesday, and said that relations between the two countries were at their “highest and most creative point in history.” Read more…

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