Death of a Project

Yesterday was a potential death sentence for this pioneering project in the jungle. There was an explosion and subsequent fire at a pumping station on the pipeline from the plant to Lima. The only information I have is probably the same as everyone else, there have been reports even in the Reuters news agency stating “It could have been sabotage”. The problem was compounded by the fact a report has just been released showing that the company that installed it had used old pipe left over from other projects and was corroded and the welding was substandard. I cannot make any comment on that but the evidence of 5 line breaks in 18 months is just a shocking revelation. I have never heard of so many breaks on a new line. The government had already put the company on notice that if any more breaks occurred then they would revoke the operating licence and then we got yesterdays news. Most people here think the government wouldn’t pull the plug as there is too much money at stake but there is so much political power being thrown about from all corners of the world because this is such a delicate ecosystem and pouring 150,000 gallons of light oil into the Amazon River isn’t really acceptable. We are going to be shut down for 5 days before they can repair the line and so we are making maintenance on all those things that needed doing over the last 3 months and we couldn’t shutdown to do. At least I don’t have to rescue any butterflies as the cooling fans are also shut off and not trapping anything but I did find a poor little bat that looked like it had been attacked by something and had a torn wing and a gaping hole in its shoulder, perhaps a snake or perhaps an owl or even the bat eating bat, that one has a snout like a wolf and lots of pointy teeth, far more fierce looking than the vampire bat.

Here is ghost bat eating a mouse



This is a carnivourous Flase Vampire with a long snout and many teeth, they actually home in on other bats echo location so dont have to give away their own location, a bit like a drunken man on a search for an indian curry on the way home.