Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Report of Pipeline Spill in Chillinga, Ayacucho


Peru's Coordinadora Nacional de Radio is reporting a new break in the Camisea pipeline occurring Tuesday morning in the La Mar province of Ayacucho. Authorities from the community of Chillinga, 40 km from the District of San Miguel claim that the rupture has caused the spill of "a large amount of hydrocarbons."

A recent technical audit of the pipeline's integrity was recently completed by the company Germanischer Lloyd, which found that the contract between the government and pipeline consortium, TGP, did not allow for adequate analysis of the terrain and that the pipeline was insufficiently designed and welded. The audit found that proper geological studies would have taken 2-3 years to complete and that TGP dedicated only 2-3 months to this work.