Petroleos del Peru (Petroperu)

Petroleos del Peru, or Petroperu, is the state-owned oil company in Peru that was formerly called Empresa Petrolera Fiscal (EPF). The EPF was organized in 1946 but actually goes back to 1934, when the government of Oscar Benavides first established a petroleum department. The department's holdings and operations expanded during the 1930s; by 1938 it constituted the fourth largest oil producer in the country, though it languished under the governments of Manuel Prado and José Luis Bustamente y Rivero in the 1940s. Production eventually picked up, reaching 607,000 barrels by the late 1950s and 1.4 million barrels by the late 1960s. The company was reorganized as Petroperu by the administration of Juan Velasco Alvarado after it seized power in 1968 and nationalized the International Petroleum Company.

From 1968 to 1991 the extraction, refining, and domestic marketing of oil were under the control of Petroperu. The company was the object of widespread criticism during the first administration of Alan Garcia because government patronage had doubled its workforce from 12,000 to 24,000. In August 1993 another state agency, Perupetro, was established to promote, negotiate, and administer exploration and production contracts, for which Petroperu was required to compete with private companies. This measure led to the awarding of several exploration and development rights to private companies such as ARCO and Chevron in 1995. However, attempts to privatize Petroperu have been stalled ever since widespread unrest and rioting in 1997 erupted in opposition to a second wave of privatization announced by the government of Alberto Fujimoro. In effect, large segments of the population consider Petroperu important to the national interest.

See alsoBenavides, Oscar Raimundo; Bustamante y Rivero, José Luis; Fujimori, Alberto Keinya; International Petroleum Company (IPC); Prado y Ugarteche, Manuel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

La Esquina del Movimiento. "No Firesale for Petroperu." Available from http://www.gci275.com/log/2003/06/no-firesale-for-petroperu.shtml.

McClintock, Cynthia, and Fabian Vallas. The United States and Peru: Cooperation at a Cost. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Thorp, Rosemary, and Geoffrey Bertram. Peru, 1890–1977: Growth and Policy in an Open Economy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.

U.S. Department of Energy. Office of Energy Statistics. Energy Information Administration. Available from http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/pgem/ch3g.html.

                                        Peter KlarÉn