A massive project to pipe natural gas and byproducts from Peru’s Camisea fields in the Amazon over the Andes to the Pacific coast will not be derailed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank’s rejection last month of a $214-million loan-guarantee package, Peruvian officials insist. The bank on Aug. 28 turned down the package, which would have facilitated the importation of U.S. machinery and equipment, following intensive lobbying by environmental organizations and the completion of a bank-financed environmental and social assessment that sharply criticized the project. Environmentalists and indigenous groups fault the Camisea project for disturbing both the rainforest around the drilling site, which is considered a “hot spot” of biological diversity, and the indigenous people living nearby. Also at issue are plans... [Log in to read more]