Damage by third parties causes new leak of crude in the Pipeline

Expanding on the Statement to the Public Opinion N° 016-2016/GCGS, issued yesterday afternoon regarding the crude leak detected in the community of Monterrico, district of Urarinas, pronvince of Loreto, we need to report the following:

• Our emergency team arrived last night to the spill area, joining the work team of Lamor, company in charge of containment and later remediation of the affected areas.
• This morning, thanks to an agreement with the Apu of said community, we entered to repair the damaged pipe. There, we verified that the location of the rupture is in the 67+375 Km of Stretch I of the North Peruvian Pipeline (ONP). It should be mentioned that the crude is contained to the ONP flotation canal along 1,525 meters.
• According to a preliminary inspection performed in the area, the crude leak would have been caused by damage done by third parties, reason for which we are coordinating the corresponding investigation by the Penal Public Prosecutor of Nauta – Loreto.
•  We have already contain the crude leak, thanks to the bolted staples that we placed in the point of rupture. At the same time, we have contained the spilled crude within the flotation canal, thanks to the barriers we have installed.
• Thanks to coordinations done with the Monterrico community, we have begun the cleanup and later remediation works, with the participation of workers from the Monterrico community and its surroundings, under the supervision of Lamor. As soon as we have defined the work schedule, we will share it with the corresponding authorities.

What was described in the lines above describes both what happened and how our administration acted in recent hours, since the crude leak occurred. However, we need to implement an integral solution that will end this series of strange occurrences and that, at the same time, allows the ONP to go back into operation with a controlled risk. Facing the situation, we have arranged the following:

1. Immediately hire a prestigious company with experience operating hydrocarbon transportation infrastructure, to establish the scope of the improvements required for implementation.
2. Implement a social development plan that promotes a strategic alliance with the communities in our surroundings, to which and we will develop the Program “Guardians of the Pipeline”, which will have as its scope the vigilance and clearing activities in the right-of-way, as well as execution of participative environmental monitoring’s, which will have to guarantee the sustainability and integrity of the PETROPERU operations.

We will continue to report on the progress and work plans that we develop on this matter.