Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Maple Energy Eyes More Peru Ethanol Projects

Peru's Pacific desert coast is home to less than 2% of the Andean nation's water supply, but to Rex Canon, it's the perfect place to grow sugarcane for ethanol. "It's an ideal place to grow cane," said Canon, chief executive of Maple Energy PLC (MPLE.LN), a Dallas-based energy company that has operated in Peru since 1992. Last year, Maple purchased from the Peruvian government 10,676 hectares – an arid piece of land in the northern Piura region that will soon be home to Peru's first fully integrated ethanol project, worth more than $180 million. (Dow Jones - click here to read complete article)


Horizonte signs mining deal with Barrick in Peru

Horizonte Minerals, the AIM listed mining group working in Brazil and Peru, has agreed a deal with industry giant, Barrick Gold Corp, to explore and acquire its 2147 hectare Pararapa gold property in southern Peru. The move could signal the first of a number of possible deals between the two companies. As part of this agreement, Barrick’s subsidiary Placer Dome del Peru will be issued with 3.5m new shares in Horizonte, payable in two tranches after 12 and 24 months respectively. (Small Cap News - click here to read complete article)

Outotec Wins $150 Million Peru Contract From Southern Copper

Outotec Oyj, whose flash smelting technology produces about half the world's copper, won an order valued at $150 million to supply a copper extraction line for mines in Peru's Arequipa region. Outotec booked $90 million of the order from Southern Copper Corp. in the second quarter, the Espoo, Finland-based company said today in a Hugin newswire release. (Bloomberg - click here to read complete article by Diana ben-Aaron)


Drilling commences on Block XXI, Onshire Peru

Gold Oil, the AIM listed oil and gas explorer and producer with assets in Colombia and Peru, today announces that the spudding of well SA-2X commenced over the weekend. Drilling is expected to reach a target depth of 5,200 feet and take approximately one month to complete. Block XXI was acquired as a high risk-high reward block but the results of SA-1X and recent geophysical work reduces the risks for this well but there is still a large exploration upside associated with the well and the rest of the block. (Trading Markets - click here to read complete press release)


Peru hit by mine pollution emergency

Peru has declared a state of emergency at a mine near Lima over fears that arsenic, lead and cadmium from its tailings dam could pollute the main water supply for the capital. Gold Hawk Resources, of Canada, confirmed the government has asked it to stop operations and relocate its processing plant and tailings dam from the Coricanca mine in the Tamboraque hillside region, which has been weakened by seismic activity and subterranean water filtration. (FT.com - click here to read complete article by Naomi Mapstone)


Nirek Signs a Letter of Intent to Acquire 45% of a Gold Producing Property in Peru

Nirek Resources Inc. is pleased to announce it has signed a Letter of Intent to become a joint venture partner with a 45% working interest in the AMR Project Peru S.A.C. The AMR Project Peru is 500 leased hectares in the district of Ayapata, in the province of Carabaya in the department of Puno, Peru. (Market Watch - click here to read complete press release)


Strike plans suspended at Southern Copper Peru

A strike planned to start on Monday at Southern Copper's Peruvian mine Cuajone has been temporarily suspended pending mediation, officials from the company and union said. Southern, one of the world's largest copper producers, has been hit by strikes this year in Peru as workers demand a larger slice of the country's economic boom. (Reuters -click here to read complete article)

Peru's Ministry of Energy and Mines ruled out that there was any shortage of electricity in the country thanks to the use of natural gas, energy minister Juan Valdivia said today.

Valdivia noted that this is a dry year due to reduced rain which has limited the hydraulic generation of electricity, but he added that companies are using natural gas for electricity generation.

He pointed out that the use of natural gas by power companies favors the whole country because they are within the interconnected system that supplies the entire Peruvian territory.

Minister Valdivia stressed that the country will have no problems this year with electric power, even State companies like Egasa and Egesur have switched to natural gas and will generate electricity from the month of September to October.

News source: ANDINA

Southern Copper Miners in Peru to Strike on July 21

Southern Copper Corp. workers at two Peruvian units plan to strike next week after the company fired employees who took part in earlier stoppages, a union official said. Workers at Southern Copper's Cuajone mine and Ilo smelter plan to strike July 21 after the company fired a total of 19 workers at both installations, union official Roman More said today in a telephone interview. The units staged strikes in June and this month seeking a bigger share of company profits. (Bloomberg - click here to read complete article by Alex Emery)


Vena Begins Second Phase 8,000 Metre Drill Program at Azulcocha West

Vena Resources Inc. is pleased to announce that the second drill program has commenced at Azulcocha West. An additional 27 drill holes have been designed for a total of 8,000 metres of drilling. Drilling includes targets on the Cantagallo, Recuperada and El Triunfo areas along the southern area of the Azulcocha West property including a skarn deposit related to the intrusive Jesus Maria, as well as mantos and cuerpos in San Pablo, Fortuna, Lucia with significant polymetallic mineralization encountered during the first drill program. (Fox Business - click here to read complete press release)

Shell, BPZ May Invest $300 Million to Seek Peru Oil

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BPZ Resources Inc. may spend $300 million to jointly explore for oil and gas off Peru's north coast, BPZ's Chief Executive Officer Manuel Zuniga said today. Houston-based BPZ and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's biggest oil company, which have signed a letter of intent, aim to have a final accord within three months, Zuniga said at a press conference in Lima. Shell is returning to the Andean nation's exploration industry after a decade's absence. (Bloomberg - click here to read complete article by Alex Emery)


Peru possible net oil exporter by 2010

Peru, South America's fifth-largest natural-gas producer, will become a net exporter of crude oil by 2010 as companies led by Spain's Repsol YPF SA start up new oilfields, Energy Minister Juan Valdivia said Tuesday. Madrid-based Repsol and France's Perenco SA could add 800 million barrels in crude reserves at their northern jungle oilfields, Valdivia said. Perenco aims to start producing 100,000 barrels a day of crude oil at its Block 67 field by 2010, he said. (Herald News Services - click here to read complete article)


Wood Group wins 3-year contract in Peru

John Wood Group Plc, the energy services firm, said it has secured a three-year contract to provide maintenance services for Pluspetrol's Camisea gas project in Peru. Camisea includes one of the largest natural gas fields in the region. The contract involves the maintenance of well sites, pipelines and other facilities, the company said. (Forbes - click here to read complete article)

Perupetro president, Daniel Saba, reported today that 38 companies have sent their intention letters to take part in the next tender of 22 oil blocks in different zones of Peru that will take place in September.

"The novelty of this tender is the significant number of participating companies. These 38 companies have an average size superior to those which took part in the processes developed last year", he said.

Among the interested companies there are four Korean enterprises, three Chinese three Indian and a Vietnamese one, which show that the percentage of the Asian companies has grown by 30 percent compared to the tender carried out on July 12, 2007, he said on a local TV program.

Saba also pointed out that Repsol is to confirm the reserves it is evaluating in block 69 that together with block 67, in charge of Perenco, would turn Peru into a net exporter of oil towards 2010.

News source: ANDINA

Reliance to sign pact with Peru's state oil firm

Peru's state-owned petroleum company Petroperu has announced a pact with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to explore oil and gas in the Andean nation, Spain's EFE news agency reported Tuesday. "We'll formalise the agreements that were adopted over the past few weeks and in the coming days will provide details on this association, in order to explore blocks that potentially contain gas or petroleum," Petroperu President Cesar Gutierrez said on Monday. (Petroleumworld - click here to read complete article)


Research and Markets: Analysis and Forecasts of the Peru Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Industry Investment Opportunities

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Peru Oil And Gas Exploration And Production Industry Investment Opportunities, Analysis and Forecasts to 2012" report to their offering. This profile is the essential source for top-level industry data and information relating to the Exploration & Production industry in Peru. It provides asset level information relating to the active and planned oil and gas fields and exploration blocks in Peru. (Ad Hoc News - click here to read complete press release)


Shougang Peru mine workers start strike

Workers started a strike on Monday at iron ore miner Shougang Hierro Peru, a union leader said. Workers were on strike at the mine two weeks for a nationwide mine walkout, and say they have gone on strike again because they still have complaints that the Chinese company should address. (Reuters - click here to see article)


Buenaventura Says Protest Hurts Output at Peru's Orcopampa Mine

Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SA said output from the company's Orcopampa gold mine in Peru was affected after protesters blocked an access road leading to the facility. The Chilcaymarca community blocked the roadway after it decided to reject an agreement with the company, Lima-based Buenaventura said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. Orcopampa is Buenaventura's largest gold mine. (Bloomberg - click here to read complete article by Jessica Brice)

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Several months after eight employees for Rio Tinto mining company were killed in a tragic helicopter accident, grieving family members battle to be indemnified for their loved ones' deaths.

Lawyers representing the family members of five of the eight victims confirmed they would be taking the case to US courts so their clients were compensated fairly.

The purpose of taking the case to international courts is to make sure that the victims' families are properly indemnified, said lawyers from Tincopa law firm as well as lawyers from Brent Coon and Associates (BCA).

"Family members, victims of the accident receive a small compensation from insurance companies and that's it, they bury their dead and nothing happens. The compensation that the insurance company wants to give is a minimal sum when compared to what can be received if the case is handled in a US court," said Carmenza Perdomo, marketing director at BCA.

Ladd Sanger, who also works for the same law firm, assured it was difficult to estimate how much each family would receive because each case was handled differently.

Sanger did explain, however, that in these types of accidents an average amount was $1 million. It was reported the case could take from 18 -24 months in a US court.

The two pilots and eight Rio Tinto workers lost their lives after the helicopter crashed into a hill because of strong winds during a storm.

The chopper was ferrying workers from the company's La Granja copper project.

Lawyers claim there was negligence on behalf of the pilots because they did not have permission to fly through dense fog and clouds.

The Cooperatives Association of Canada will spend about 400 thousand dollars to produce canola in the Andean zones of Picoy and Huancahuasi, located at 3,500 meters above sea level in the district of Santa Leonor, Huaura in northern Lima, reported the Regional Government of Lima.

The governor of Lima, Nelson Chui, stated this was achieved after the regional government had signed an agreement with the Canadian institution.

The project will make it possible to produce canola in these places, where only natural pasture (ichu) grows, so that the population benefits from ecological fuel and milling residue that will be used as food for cattle.

The regional authority stressed that the sowing, processing and sale of canola is guaranteed by the participation of the private enterprise and the regional government's 99-thousand-dollar contribution.

Los Quenuales mining company agreed to buy the entire production of the ecological fuel closing the circuit - benefiting 700 families from the zone (approximately three thousand 500 people), who will sow the canola plant in 300 hectares.

News source: ANDINA

BPZ Energy and Royal Dutch Shell will sign in the next three months a partnership agreement for gas exploration in three blocks located in Tumbes, informed today BPZ’s president, Manuel Zúñiga.

In this way Shell will be incorporated in the license contracts that currently BPZ has in the blocks XXIII, XIX and Z-1 (Tumbes).

Last June 26, Shell and BPZ signed a memorandum of understanding as a first step to establish a definitive agreement.

“Shell is very interested in gas and it has showed enthusiasm in the geologic models that we have carried out in the zone as well as in the existent gas potential”, he said.

He indicated, at first, the agreement will include the gas exploration, an according to the confirmation of the gas volume they are interested in, it's possible that Shell takes part in BPZ’s thermoelectric plant project and also in oil exploitation in Piura.

BPZ continues operating all the blocks because Shell trusts in the technical work of this company, said Zúñiga to TV Peru’s news program.

News source: ANDINA