Those spills and other environmentally damaging incidents are fueling community anger with Indigenous peoples claiming they are wreaking damage to their ancestral lands. Oil spills remain a hazard in a country where environmental protection, especially of the Amazon, has not been a significant government priority for decades. The latest political crisis, where tensions have boiled over into days-long violent anti-government demonstrations, since leftist President Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve congress, will sharply impact the petroleum industry which has long been an environmental disaster.

The social license of Peru’s crisis-torn petroleum industry continues to deteriorate despite efforts by the national government in Lima to gain greater community cooperation and reboot operations. Those demonstrations are responsible for production outages, dwindling energy investment, and foreign energy companies withdrawing from Peru. This is driving anti-petroleum industry protests in Peru’s Amazon, many of which have turned violent, over the last decade leaving the industry in crisis.

For nearly three decades a swath of environmentally damaging oil spills, pipeline leaks, and other contaminating discharges have wreaked havoc on Peru’s Amazon Basin and coastline. As an intense political crisis engulfs Peru, the country’s beleaguered oil industry continues to suffer from conflict with local communities.

Diablo 2 amazon basin