The Camisea Gas project, which has been criticized by many of Peru's indigenous peoples, launched operations on August 7. The gas plant, located on Peru's southern Pacific coast, is expected to generate an estimated US $10 billion in tax revenue and royalties for the country over the next 40 years, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire.
Seventy five percent of extraction operations will take place inside the Nahua Kagapakori State Reserve, which is home to more than 7,000 indigenous people. Machiguenga communities who depend on fishing, hunting, and forest products, and the semi-nomadic Nahua, Nanti, and Kirineri groups living within and near the reserve have protested the project for years, citing concerns for their physical and economic health as well as their cultural survival.
The Camisea Consortia is composed of Tecgas (Argentina), Pluspetrol (Argentina), Hunt Oil (United States), SK Corporation (Korea), Sonatrach (Algeria), and Grana y Montero (Peru).
