Blog: Pluspetrol’s responsibility for environmental damage and Indigenous rights violations in the Peruvian Amazon

Dutch National Contact Point of the OECD confirms Pluspetrol’s responsibility for environmental damage and Indigenous rights violations in the Peruvian Amazon

By Kees Kodde, Lead Fair Finance International

Just a couple of weeks ago the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) National Contact Point in the Netherlands concluded that oil company Pluspetrol violated human rights and is responsible for pollution in Indigenous territories in Peru’s Amazon.

This finding comes following an official complaint which was filed in 2020 by representatives of the Indigenous federations FEDIQUEP, FECONACOR, OPIKAFPE, and ACODECOSPAT, with the support of Oxfam Novib, Peru Equidad and SOMO. In anticipation of the publication of the OECD’s Final Statement on the complaint, and to help raise awareness around the terrible impacts of Pluspetrol’s activities in the region Oxfam Novib, Oxfam en Peru, Peru Equidad and SOMO hosted a delegation of Indigenous people from affected territories in the Netherlands. Having worked with the Peruvian partners via our Finanzas con Derechos (Fair Finance Peru) coalition I was delighted to support the visit of this delegation. The visit also sought to highlight the negative consequences of Dutch policies around tax havens, which enables companies like Pluspetrol to evade their responsibilities.

In the official statement released, the National Contact Point (NCP) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the Netherlands concluded that the oil company Pluspetrol violated the human rights of Indigenous communities. Also, very disappointingly, the company refused to participate in a mediation dialogue throughout the NCP process; this is the type of behaviour the Fair Finance network works to alert financial institutions and investors to.

Pluspetrol’s operations between 2000 and 2015 are responsible for environmental contamination in the Peruvian Amazon. Oil spills, industrial discharge, and air and soil contamination from toxic cadmium, barium, and lead are just a few of the impacts still affecting the Quechua of the Pastaza River, the Achuar of the Corrientes River, and the Kichwa of the Tigre River.

The NCP urged Pluspetrol to remedy all damage caused by its extractive activities in the Loreto Region’s territory, which had accumulated more than four decades of oil exploitation at the time of the company’s withdrawal.

Indigenous federations have also denounced Pluspetrol’s use of a corporate structure designed to evade fiscal and environmental responsibilities, which goes against the OECD’s provisions on taxation and transparency. Although the company has Argentinian capital, its parent company is registered as a "letterbox company" in the Netherlands, with operations connected to tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg among others.

The communities, Oxfam Novib and their civil society partners will continue their advocacy in order to secure real justice in the case and ensure Pluspetrol finally accepts its responsibility for long-lasting damage to Indigenous Peoples and nature. Banks and investors who are financing Pluspetrol, are advised to take a thorough look at the Final Statement by the NCP.

See here the video of the delegation’s visit to The Netherlands.