“He did not take sufficient measures to prevent negative environmental impacts and, therefore, did not adequately deal with health risks“, So the Dutch OECD office – responsible for the application of the Guidelines on the corporate corporate responsibility of Pluspetrol, – concluded that the oil company violated the fundamental rights of the indigenous populations of the Amazon during the 15 years in which it was responsible for the exploitation of Lotto 192, the largest oil deposit of Peru.
The sentence of 3 September of the organization for the organization and economic development and economic development found that, between 2000 and 2015, the Argentine oil company based in Amsterdam contaminated at least 1,963 sites with oil and industrial waste spill, affecting at least 16 indigenous communities of the region.
Pluspetrol is one of the main operators of Vaca Muerta and one of the five promoters of the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur project, who is advancing towards the home of whales, penguins and hundreds of species in the Gulf of San Matías.
There, in the heart of the Golfi of northern Patagonia, fundamental for biodiversity and local communities, they are even building a terminal for the export of oil which, as is obvious and as experts have already affirmed, has a high risk of escape. The consequences would go from the collisions between ships and marine fauna to noise pollution, to oil contamination in ecosystems with a unique, fragile and protected biodiversity, such as the Valdés peninsula.
The declaration also invites Pluspetrol to take charge of the environmental and social damage generated by its extractive activities in the Amazonian territory, where the company has operated for over forty years before retiring. According to the document, in fact, the consequences of exploitation continue to weigh heavily on the indigenous communities: the Quechua of the Pastaza river, the Achuar of the Corrierientes and the Kichwa of the tiger.
According to the national contact point (PCN) of the organization for cooperation and economic development in the Netherlands, the evidence collected by the communities demonstrate violations of fundamental rights such as access to drinking water, food safety, health and self -determination. Casting spills have also been reported, unloading of industrial waste water and widespread contaminations of soil and rivers. According to the Fund for the promotion of the protected natural areas of Peru (deep) estimate that Pluspetrol has left 3,249 contaminated sites behind it.
The company rejects part of the accusations, claiming to have to respond only for pollution produced during its management and not for that inherited from previous operators on lot 192, exploited since the seventies.
We know the damage suffered well. We know that Pluspetrol is no longer here, but he must take responsibility, reiterated Aurelio Piñola, an indigenous leader.
In 2021 the Peruvian environmental authorities definitively rejected the abandonment plan presented by the company, after six years of observations that remained unanswered.
Pluspetrol had left Lotto 192 in 2015, at the end of the concession. Subsequently, the deposit was temporarily entrusted to the Canadian Frontera, waiting for a new manager for 30 years, in the consortium with Petroperú. But the pandemic and the end of the collaboration with the Colombiana Altamesa stopped any attempt to relaunch: in 2025 the site was abandoned.
Lot 192, which extends for 512,000 hectares, still remains the most important in the country, with reserves estimated at 127 million barrels and a production capacity of 12,000 barrels per day.
Sources: Oecd Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises / Observatory Petrolero
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