Marco Aquino News

China's Cosco Shipping confirmed that investment in Peru's Chancay port continues and that it expects a quick resolution to a pending question over exclusivity rights to the facility, a local executive told reporters on Tuesday.Carlos Tejada, the company's general manager in Peru, made the announcement at an international trade event in the capital Lima.Last month, the Asian shipping firm said it was evaluating the impact of a move by Peru's government to annul the exclusivity it holds over operations at the under-construction megaport, seen as a key driver of growth for the South American cou

A resolution to end a dispute between Peru and China's Cosco Shipping could come as soon as this week to ensure a megaport will start operations as planned by the end of the year, Peru's Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen said on Thursday.The Peruvian port authority said in Marchit hoped to annul its decision granting exclusivity of the port's operations to Cosco, citing an "administrative error."Cosco, which is investing $1.3 billion in the first stage of the terminal, has said the push affects the "security and legal stability of investments."On Thursday…

Indigenous protesters in the Peruvian Amazon have released two oil tankers and their crew members being held since last week in protest over changes to a development fund, a source at the company operating the vessels, PetroTal, said on Monday.The firm's marine shipments in the area also resumed earlier on Monday, the source added.The two ships were hijacked on Tuesday, one with 40,000 barrels of crude aboard. The release occurred on Saturday after a meeting between the Indigenous group's leaders and local authorities…

A group of indigenous protesters in Peru's remote Amazon region attacked two oil tankers with gasoline bombs apparently because they are angry about changes by the government to social oil funds, the operator of the vessels said on Wednesday.A dozen crew members from both tankers, one of which contained 40,000 barrels of crude, were also kidnapped by the assailants, according to a statement from Canada-based PetroTal.PetroTal accused protesters affiliated with indigenous association Aidecobap of blocking an Amazon tributary preventing the passage of the two oil tankers, one of which was empty,

China’s COSCO Shipping Holdings suspended construction on a tunnel for a major port project in northern Peru after a partial landslide struck, a company official said on Tuesday.The company is working to understand what caused the landslide, said Romulo Zarauz, a manager with the Chinese company’s local unit.The incident took place Tuesday morning in the coastal province of Huaral, about 56 miles (90 km) north of the capital Lima, damaging at least four houses near the tunnel…

Peru's environmental regulatory agency said on Wednesday it was investigating the possibility that Spanish energy company Repsol SA was responsible for a second oil spill in as many weeks off the country's central Pacific coast.The suspected new spill may have occurred on Tuesday as Repsol's La Pampilla refinery was withdrawing oil reception and dispatch equipment as part of an investigation into what caused the initial spill blamed on unusually strong waves triggered by a volcanic eruption in Tonga this month, according to the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA).The age

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo declared an environmental emergency on Thursday as clean-up teams struggled to contain a huge oil spill at the country's biggest refinery, after rogue waves rocked a ship unloading crude there.The spill, blamed on unusual swells caused by a volcanic eruption thousands of miles away in Tonga on Sunday, has dirtied waters and beaches along Peru's Pacific coast, with dead birds and seals washing up on shore."We are at a critical moment in environmental matters," said Castillo, before signing the emergency decree on one of the beaches hit by the spill.

Peru has exported its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in three weeks after a pipeline rupture in the jungle disrupted production, the state energy agency Perupetro said on Tuesday. The ship Barcelona Knutsen departed Peru for South Korea on Monday with 170,999 cubic meters (6,038,772 cubic feet) of fuel from the Pampa Melchorita plant, which is operated by the consortium Peru LNG, Perupetro said in a report. U.S.-based Hunt Oil has a 40 percent stake in Peru LNG. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Japan's Marubeni Corp and other companies have smaller stakes in the consortium.

Peru is reducing royalties on oil and gas production to about 5 percent on average from the current 20 percent in order to encourage exploration amid slumping prices, the government said Wednesday. The smaller take should help Peru boost interest in new oil contracts that will come up for bidding soon, said Rafael Zoeger, the president of state energy agency Perupetro. Peru has repeatedly pushed back auctioning on more than two dozen oil blocks because of a lack of interest in recent years. "I'd rather get 5 percent on some production than 20 or 30 on none," Zoeger said at a news conference. Perupetro will tailor royalties for each concession, setting a lower rate for more costly and less accessible areas, he said.

A consortium formed by units of local builder Grana y Montero and Germany's Oiltanking won a 20-year contract for managing five fuel terminals in Peru, Grana y Montero said on Wednesday. The consortium will invest about $225 million in the project, with $190 million returned in the form of discounted payments to state-run energy company Petroperu, Grana y Montero said via email. Each company controls a 50 percent stake in the local consortium, said Grana y Montero, Peru's biggest construction company. Petroperu, which owns the terminals and awarded the management contract, has said it is planning a $3.5 billion expansion of its main refinery, Talara, to boost output by 50 percent to 96,000 barrels per day. (Reporting By Marco Aquino; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Peru awarded a $182.4 million contract for the construction and operation of a maritime port to a consortium of Brazilian and Spanish companies, the government said on Wednesday. Consorcio Paracas beat out two other bidders on the project, including a local unit of APM Terminals, owned by the Maersk Group, state investment agency Proinversion said. The winning consortium was formed by Spain's Servinoga and Brazilian companies Pattac Empreendimentos e Participacoes, Tucumán Engenharia e Empreendimentos and Fortesolo Servicios Integrados. The terminal port near Peru's southern coastal city of Pisco, which the consortium will manage through a 30-year concession, is expected to speed up mineral shipments from the Andean country's southern mines.