By Ryan Dube
LIMA, Peru--Gas-transportation company Transportadora de Gas del
Peru SA said Tuesday that unknown individuals attacked workers that
were building a compressor plant in a remote area of southern Peru
that is rife with remnants of leftist guerrillas.
Transportadora de Gas, known as TgP, said that a contract worker
was injured by a gun shot during the attack on Monday. The worker
was transported to a hospital and is in stable condition, the
company said.
"TgP deeply regrets and rejects the attacks against personnel
working in the area and trusts that the Peruvian government will
continue working to provide the necessary conditions for peace and
security," the company said in a statement.
A spokesman for TgP declined to provide further details about
the incident.
Transportadora de Gas del Peru operates a pipeline that
transports gas from the Camisea fields in Peru's southeastern
Amazon region to the country's Pacific coast.
About 50% of the feedstock for Peru's electricity generation
depends on the pipeline.
The company has been working on a compressor plant in the
province of La Convencion, in Cuzco region, that will increase the
transportation capacity of the pipeline. The pipeline expansion
project is aimed at increasing transport capacity for the local
market, with the expansion scheduled to be completed in 2015.
Work on the plant was postponed last year after the company
suspended activity due to the lack of security in the region.
The area is a stronghold of a splinter group of the Shining Path
rebels, which launched an insurgency in the 1980s that was aimed at
toppling Peru's government and replacing it with a Maoist-inspired
state. Some 70,000 people were killed during the conflict.
The rebels are no longer seen as a threat to political
stability. However, well-armed remnants still control isolated
regions where they profit from the country's cocaine
production.
In 2012, the rebels briefly kidnapped some 40 natural gas
workers in the area. They regularly ambush and kill Peruvian
security forces stationed in the region.
Transportadora de Gas del Peru restarted work on the compressor
plant last year after the government increased security near the
project.
Since then, Peruvian security forces made recent inroads against
the rebels. Two of the Shining Path's top military commanders were
killed last year by security forces.
On Tuesday, Peru's Armed Forces said that it confiscated a
number of explosives and weapons after conducting several
operations in the area. The Armed Forces said in a statement it is
committed to improving security in the region.
Transportadora de Gas del Peru is an international consortium
that includes Sonatrach of Algeria, South Korea's SK Corp.,
Franco-Belgian GDF Suez-Tractebel SA, Peru's Grana y Montero SAA
and Transportadora de Gas Internacional SA, which is a unit of
Colombia's Grupo Energia de Bogota.
In late January, Spanish energy company Enagas SA and the Canada
Pension Plan Investment Board, or CPPIB, announced that they would
acquire stakes in the consortium.
Write to Ryan Dube at ryan.dube@dowjones.com
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