New Spill Intensifies Battle Over Leaky Pipeline
Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Mar 6 (IPS) - An independent research group and the company building one of Latin America's most ambitious gas pipelines are butting heads over claims that the company used shoddy materials and unqualified staff for a Peruvian pipeline in one of the world's most richly bio-diverse areas.

The escalation of the dispute comes as the pipeline, which brings natural gas from Peru's southern Amazon region to the capital Lima, leaked natural gas liquids for the fifth time into the Amazon rainforest since its inception 18 months ago.

The controversy escalated last week when E-Tech International, a California-based non-profit technical research organisation, issued a report charging that the quality of materials and construction procedures used in the Camisea gas pipeline were substandard.

The report predicted further leaks and said that the shoddy work by the builder, Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP), a consortium that includes Argentina's Pluspetrol and Techint, Texas-based Hunt Oil, Algeria's state-controlled Sonatrach and South Korea's SK Corp, has led to the previous four ruptures in the pipeline.

Green and watchdog groups said the findings validated their fears that such massive projects are often detrimental to the environment and indigenous people in remote areas. They urged the project's main financial backer, the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), to order a comprehensive review of the Camisea pipeline.

The spills have reportedly generated enormous resentment among indigenous people, some of whom have had little or no contact with the outside world before, and who rely on the jungle for their food, drinking water and medicine.

TGP has strongly denied the report's conclusions. In a statement sent to IPS, Rafael Guarderas, the company's institutional affairs officer, said that "the statements reported by E-Tech doesn't correspond to the reality and are without substantiation".

The company particularly sought to discredit the main finding of the report -- that 40 percent of the pipe used in the 1.6-billion-dollar project was left over from other projects. Guarderas said that the entire pipeline was issued specifically for this project after passing quality assurance tests.

TGP maintained that 100 percent of the welds were made by qualified welders and revised by radiography.

But Bill Powers, one of the authors of the E-Tech report, countered that at least two technicians brought in to do an important procedure called a hydrostatic test, identified only as Sr. Marsol and Sr. Santos, had no internationally recognised certification to perform such testing.

"In fact, they had no specific training at all in conducting hydrostatic tests," Powers said.

Hydrostatic testing is used to test components for leaks by pressurising them inside with a liquid.

E-Tech says that Marsol was brought in from Argentina to lay fibre optic cable and had no previous experience with hydrostatic testing, while Santos' primary function was to oversee the taking of radiographs of welds, and he too had no experience conducting hydrostatic testing.

Last week, some congressional leaders in Peru said they will hold hearings on the project and could order an investigation. Many have also said the government should withdraw from the project if leaks persisted.

Meanwhile, the IDB says it has monitored the environmental and social impacts of the project, and cited a lack of evidence in the E-Tech report. It said it will delay a formal decision on whether to continue funding the project until its technical experts assess the evidence presented in the report.

The author of the E-Tech report, Carlos Salazar Tirado, is a certified pipeline welding inspector who examined sections of the Camisea pipeline during the construction phase in 2002-2003.

E-Tech says it had been involved with the IDB for two years in trying to organise an independent review, but because the joint effort made little progress, the group decided to conduct a study itself.

"The result of this investigation is that the lack of adequate soil stabilisation due to excessive haste during construction, use of substandard pipe, and use of unqualified personnel are the root causes of the ruptures," E-Tech reiterated in a new statement sent to IPS.

Powers also challenged the company not to delay a promise to open its technical records regarding the pipeline -- for example, if it was trimmed to remove a corroded or damaged end -- for public scrutiny.

Ricardo Markous, president of TGP, committed at an IDB meeting in Washington on Feb. 27 to make these records available for review by the authors of the E-Tech report. The company said it stands ready for "a complete audit that reviews all the construction procedures, materials and processes".

"Any delay in fulfilling that promise will be perceived the same way delays in counting votes are perceived -- as irregular," Powers said. (END/2006)