14 investigations into the attacks have been opened by public prosecutors and no arrests have been made yet.

Peru has decided to declare the country’s sole oil pipeline a “strategic asset” so that the military can protect it from vandalism, as reported Reuters yesterday. Several attacks to the pipeline have occurred over the past two years, which is something that has made investors nervous, according to Beatriz Alva Hart, a Petroperú manager for relations with communities near the pipeline. Just last Tuesday Petroperú personnel patrolled Section 1 of the Norperuano Pipeline (Oleoducto Norperuano, ONP) and identified an outcrop of oil at Km 20 + 100, which they considered to be an attack from third parties. The pipeline was cut open, spilling 40 barrels.

The company suspects local businesses hired to clean up oil from two corrosion-induced ruptures in early 2016 have been behind the subsequent spate of vandalism, said Reuters.

“Since the start of 2016, some 11,100 barrels of oil have spilled from the pipeline in 14 attacks, and 5,600 barrels spilled because of corrosion or operative failures, data from environmental regulator OEFA showed.”, said Reuters.

So far, 14 investigations into the attacks have been opened by public prosecutors with no arrests made, according to Alva Hart in an interview with the news agency.

The center-right government of president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski will ask Congress to approve the military move very soon, informed this news site. The idea is to qualify it as an infrastructure that’s a strategic asset for the Peruvian state so that the military and not only the police can protect it.

(Source) (Cover Photo Wikimedia Commons)

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