Oil production is expected to begin as early as 2016, media reports say

May 24, 2014 20:11 GMT  ·  By

As if greenheads needed any more reasons to loathe the oil industry, it turns out that activities intended to put more of this dirty fuel on the market are to soon be carried out in the Amazon's Yasuni National Park.

For those unaware, the Yasuni National Park is located in Ecuador. It spans over an area of about 9,800 square kilometers (about 3,780 square miles), and it has been listed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1989.

According to The Guardian, it was earlier this week when Lorena Tapia, Ecuador's environment minister, went public with the news that oil company Petroamazonas had been granted permission to exploit this biodiversity hotspot.

Specifically, information shared with the public says that drilling permits have already been signed, and that Petroamazonas expects that oil production in the Yasuni National Park will begin as early as 2016, the same source informs.

Meanwhile, the oil company is expected to get to work building access roads and camps that will allow it to exploit said reserve without too much difficulty. Otherwise put, the first thing on the agenda is building the infrastructure needed to drill in the Yasuni National Park.

What's interesting is that, by the looks of it, folks living in Ecuador are not exactly thrilled about the government's decision to allow Petroamazonas to look for oil in this part of the Amazon.

On the contrary, word has it that the government has been handed a petition against this project signed by some 850,000 people, but that it has chosen to ignore it on the grounds that just 360,000 signatures were genuine.

Talking to the press, environmental activist Esperanza Martinez has pointed out that drilling for oil in the Amazon's Yasuni National Park is pure madness, simply because this region is a biodiversity hotspot and should not in any way be disturbed.

Besides, it appears that Petroamazonas does not have what some might want to call a clean record. On the contrary, the company has several times been found guilty of causing oil spills, and therefore cannot be trusted to exploit this pristine region.

Add to this the fact that, as shown by several previous studies, burning dirty fuels for energy promotes climate change and global warming, both of which have been shown to affect both the natural world and human society, and it is no wonder that environmentalists want whatever oil reserves are hidden in the Amazon to remain in the ground.