PERU: MULTIPLE RUPTURES IN CAMISEA GAS PIPELINE LEAD TO INVESTIGATION.
The Peruvian government has begun an investigation into the construction and maintenance of the Camisea gas pipeline after five ruptures occurred in the first year and a half of its operation, with the fifth leak causing an explosion injuring three people and burning the surrounding area. A number of presidential candidates made the pipeline failures a prominent theme in their campaigns, blaming the current government for the problems. Political opposition to the government of President Alejandro Toledo accused his top official, Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, of allowing his previous work for the Texas-based company that helped build the line to interfere with his oversight duties. Critics also complained that the government had promised an investigation after the line failed four times, but waited for months until after the fifth rupture to conduct a vigorous probe.
Fifth rupture injures three, burns two hectares
The latest break in the Camisea duct occurred March 5 near the Urubamba River, in the department of Cuzco, some 500 km east of Lima. A leak in the line led to an explosion and fire that reached a group of local inhabitants who were about 130 meters away from the duct. A mother and her two children, ages 11 and seven, were wounded and the surrounding land caught fire and burned two hectares after the blast. The blaze in the Echarati district in the province of La Convencion reduced the home and fields of a native family there to ashes.
The vice mayor of Echarati, Adolfo Vilca, told the Associated Press in a telephone interview, "The panorama is very uncertain. Our residents and the authorities are very worried. We continue to believe that TGP [Transportadora de Gas del Peru] does not have the necessary logistics to control these types of events."
The pipeline was inaugurated in August 2004 to bring natural gas from the Camisea gas fields in the Amazonian interior to the capital in Lima and to the Pacific coast for export (see NotiSur, 2004-08-27). The TGP consortium has been building or operating the pipeline since 2000 when the companies Techint and Pluspetrol (from Argentina), Sonatrach (Algeria's state-run energy company), Hunt Oil (US), SK Corporation (South Korea), Suez (France), and Grana y Montero (Peru) formed TGP. The consortium has a 30-year contract to administer and transport Camisea gas deposits, which include an estimated 8.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 411 million barrels of associated liquids like propane, butane, and condensates.
Financed largely by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the line was touted as being able to satisfy the country's internal demand for natural gas and produce supply for international export. The US$1.6 billion project carries gas 1,100 km across the Andes mountains to Lima and a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Peru's Pacific coast, south of Pisco. The project has two parts: the natural gas pipeline, which runs 714 km to the city gate at...
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