INDIGENOUS protesters in Peru’s Amazon have released two seized vessels belonging to the Canadian oil company PetroTal, and freed the 14 crew members, the company said yesterday.

“The barges have been released” and the crew members – Brazilians and Peruvians – are in good condition, an oil company source told AFP.

The source said the vessels were seized June 6 and freed last Saturday, when they were returned along with 40,000 barrels of oil one of them was carrying. 

It is unclear if there was any agreement between PetroTal and the indigenous people, who demand more resources for social projects, a recurrent subject of friction in oil-producing areas.

The communities had expressed their disagreement with the contribution of 2.5% of the Canadian company’s production for the development initiatives. 

Local media reported Amazon indigenous leaders met Saturday with authorities of the regional government of Loreto, as a prior step to the release.

No government authority has commented on the seizures.

PetroTal, an oil and gas production company based in Calgary, attributed the attack in Peru’s northeast Loreto region to followers of the Indigenous Association for the Development and Conservation of Bajo Puinahua.

The vessels, which were seized on the Puinahua river, transport crude oil down the Amazon River to Brazil from PetroTal’s production field in Loreto. 

In March, indigenous people occupied an oil pumping station in the Amazon to demand state-owned firm Petroperu clean up areas damaged by a spill decades ago.

Peru has been hit by a series of oil spills in recent years, closing beaches and tourism businesses and robbing people of their livelihoods, including fishing. – AFP, June 14, 2023.