The Colombian National Authority for Environmental Licenses (ANLA) has taken action against Perenco Colombia Limited, an Anglo-French oil firm.
ANLA initiated three separate sanction proceedings due to the company’s environmental management issues in the Casanare region.
Perenco, with operations across 14 countries, is a significant player in the oil industry.
It particularly stands out in the Colombian plains, where it produces about 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily.
The company’s primary production sites are in Africa, with notable projects in Cameroon and Gabon.
The first of the sanctions highlighted by Bloomberg Línea centers on Perenco’s lapse in providing evidence of its community engagement and social monitoring from 2012 to 2014.
This failure hindered ANLA’s ability to assess the company’s community interactions around the Caño Garza Block in Casanare.
A second issue involves the Morichal – Casanare A1c production area.
Here, Perenco did not submit the necessary documents regarding handling domestic wastewater generated during construction, including physicochemical monitoring results.
The third infraction relates to an oil spill in 2014 at the LGN2, LGN3, and LGN5 well sites.
Despite ANLA’s 2015 directive for soil recovery efforts with regular progress reports, a follow-up in 2016 showed remaining hydrocarbon traces in the soil.
In contradiction to Perenco’s claims of meeting soil safety standards, ANLA’s 2022 visit revealed that contaminated soil was still present on the site.
The company faces sanctions for not adequately addressing this issue and failing to entrust a specialized third party with the contaminated soil’s treatment.
ANLA will soon determine the exact penalties for these infractions, and Perenco has no option to contest the initiation of these sanction proceedings.
These developments underscore the critical nature of environmental compliance and the repercussions of neglect in the oil industry.
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