LIMA, May 18 - Protesters in the Amazon basin have forced Peru's state energy company to shut its crude oil pipeline, a company official said on Monday as the government tries to end weeks of demonstrations over natural resources.
Indigenous communities have blocked roads and waterways to pressure the government to revoke investment laws Peru passed under a free-trade pact with the United States and to revise concessions granted to foreign energy companies.
Peru is encouraging investment as it tries to transform itself from a net oil importer into a net exporter.
"The indigenous protest has forced us to stop, totally," Luis Suarez, head of maintenance at the 530-mile (854-km) pipeline of state company Petroperu, told Reuters. He said the pipeline normally pumps some 40,000 barrels a day.
Dozens of local and foreign energy companies operate in the Amazon rain forest region, including Spain's Repsol-YPF (REP.MC) and France's Perenco.
Output has suffered since the protests began in April. But the problem has grown more acute. As recently as Friday, protests had stuck at least 41 vessels serving energy companies along jungle rivers in the Amazon.
Suarez said the halt of operations will likely hurt companies like Petroperu and Pluspetrol, which use the pipeline to transport crude oil from the jungle to a coastal refinery.
Peru, which has auctioned off mining and energy concessions throughout most the country, has drawn fierce criticism from environmental and human rights groups that say development threatens the environment and risks exposing remote tribes to new and deadly diseases.
The government declared a state of emergency more than a week ago in the central regions of Loreto, Amazonas, Ucayali and Cuzco, a move that allows it to send in the armed forces and impose curfews to break up demonstrations.
Protesters responded by calling for an "insurgency," a threat the indigenous leader Alberto Pizango backed off from over the weekend when he said the word was too open to "bad interpretations."
Peru's ombudsman's office met with Pizango on Monday in a bid to mediate a settlement between the government and demonstrators.
Indigenous communities have blocked roads and waterways to pressure the government to revoke investment laws Peru passed under a free-trade pact with the United States and to revise concessions granted to foreign energy companies.
Peru is encouraging investment as it tries to transform itself from a net oil importer into a net exporter.
"The indigenous protest has forced us to stop, totally," Luis Suarez, head of maintenance at the 530-mile (854-km) pipeline of state company Petroperu, told Reuters. He said the pipeline normally pumps some 40,000 barrels a day.
Dozens of local and foreign energy companies operate in the Amazon rain forest region, including Spain's Repsol-YPF (REP.MC) and France's Perenco.
Output has suffered since the protests began in April. But the problem has grown more acute. As recently as Friday, protests had stuck at least 41 vessels serving energy companies along jungle rivers in the Amazon.
Suarez said the halt of operations will likely hurt companies like Petroperu and Pluspetrol, which use the pipeline to transport crude oil from the jungle to a coastal refinery.
Peru, which has auctioned off mining and energy concessions throughout most the country, has drawn fierce criticism from environmental and human rights groups that say development threatens the environment and risks exposing remote tribes to new and deadly diseases.
The government declared a state of emergency more than a week ago in the central regions of Loreto, Amazonas, Ucayali and Cuzco, a move that allows it to send in the armed forces and impose curfews to break up demonstrations.
Protesters responded by calling for an "insurgency," a threat the indigenous leader Alberto Pizango backed off from over the weekend when he said the word was too open to "bad interpretations."
Peru's ombudsman's office met with Pizango on Monday in a bid to mediate a settlement between the government and demonstrators.
