Peruvian officials are breathing easier since awarding a new contract for the long-stalled Camisea natural gas project. Environmental and indigenous groups are not. They worry the new concession-holders will not provide the same environmental and social safeguards promised by the previous concessionaires—Royal Dutch-Shell and Mobil, which quit the project nearly two years ago in a dispute with the government. At issue is the development of vast gas reserves underlying the Camisea region, an area of virgin rainforest and remote Indian communities some 350 miles (500km) east of Lima. The government last month awarded a 40-year concession for the project to a consortium comprising Argentina’s Pluspetrol Resources, U.S.-based Hunt Oil Company and Korea’s SK Group. Headed by Pluspetrol, the consortium... [Log in to read more]