Volume 2, issue #10 - 14-04-1997

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Increasing environmental concern for fragile Orinoco Delta

Mar. 26, 1997 International oil companies working in Venezuela's Orinoco Delta have come under fire from environmentalists who fear escalating pollution and negative effects on the environment and the American Indian groups living there.
Non-government group Orinoco Oilwatch singled out British Petroleum for its work in the Pedernales field in the delta, where it has been working since 1993. BP company literature on the field highlights 70 years of oil activity in the area since the field was discovered in the 1920s. The campaigners said oil exploration had already contaminated large parts of western Venezuela, and was about to do the same in the fragile mangrove swamps of the Orinoco delta where BP alone hopes to hike production five times by the end of next year to 100,000 bpd.
"About 24,000 members of the Warao native Indian tribe live in the Delta, including the region which the government has slated for foreign oil production," Orinoco Oilwatch said in a recent statement. "The dispersal of contaminants associated with the normal operations of exploring and drilling for oil would be extensive and would have a highly adverse health effect on the Indian tribe."
Orinoco Oilwatch is one of few environmental groups in Venezuela. The group, which also encompasses "national-political interests" said, "the opening up of mineral resources has raised serious questions of violation of the Venezuelan Constitution and laws and its threat to national and fiscal sovereignty." Orinoco Oilwatch called for the cancellation of BP's licence, and others licences in the delta awarded to Louisiana Land & Exploration, Benton Oil and Gas, Norcen Energy Resources, Amoco and YPF subsidiary Maxus.
In response to the growing environmental concerns, state oil company PDVSA has set up an Environment, Safety and Industrial Hygiene Committee to pool industry information on the issues. PDVSA hopes to attract oil companies with exploration licenses to join the new committee.