The spill took place on September 16 and affected several indigenous communities in the Loreto region of northeastern Peru. While the Peruvian environment ministry estimated the spill at 2,500 barrels, state oil company Petroperu said it did not yet have an estimate.
Petroperu said in a statement that the spill was the result of “intentional” damage to a pipeline operated by the company. The pipeline carries crude from the Amazon to the desert coast of Peru for refining.
The pipeline has been the scene of several oil spills in recent years.
The government said in a statement that communities were blocking the Great Maranon River, a key tributary of the Amazon, preventing officials from taking water samples and distributing medicine to affected indigenous communities.
Reuters could not reach a community representative for comment.
The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world and its preservation is considered essential by scientists to avoid catastrophic climate change. Le Prou has the second largest section of the Amazon after Brazil.
Although Peru is a very small oil producer, producing only 40,000 barrels a day, its oil fields are concentrated in the Amazon.
The incident is at least the second major oil spill in Peru this year, after Spanish oil company Repsol SA spilled more than 10,000 barrels into the Pacific Ocean in January from an oil tanker loading a refinery in the company near Lima, the capital of Peru.
The spill is also the eleventh to take place since the beginning of the year in the Amazon, according to Petroperu, but the first to spill directly into a river.
The administration of leftist Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has said it wants Petroperu to increase production, particularly at the dormant Lot 192, the country’s largest oilfield, located deep in the Amazon.