The New Frontiers of Energy Extreme Extractivism in Latin America Contents What do we Understand by Extreme Energy? ...............................4 Anihilating Space Through Time .................................................. 10 Biotechnology in the Service of Extractivism ............................. 20 Blowing up the Ocean ..................................................................... 26 Pre-salt: Extreme Energy from the Entrails of the Earth .......... 34 An Iceberg Called “Vaca Muerta” .................................................. 44 Colombia: “Heavies” Expand the Extractive Frontier ................ 54 Violence as a Model ........................................................................ 64 Coordination: Hernán Scandizzo Extreme Orinoco: The Oil Belt and the Mining Arc, Design: Patricia Peralta High Risk Extractivism .................................................................... 74 Translation: Nancy Viviana Piñeiro Cover image: Diego di Risio Coal 2.0: Another Chapter in the Latin American Title page: Alexis Vichich Unconventional Plot ........................................................................ 82 Oilwatch Latinoamérica www.oilwatchsudamerica.org [email protected] This publication was made possible with the support of You are free to copy, distribute, and make derivative works of this material provided you give appropriate credit under the terms of the Creative Commons license, Attribution 2.5 Argentina. By Tatiana Roa Avendaño (Censat Agua Viva - Friends of the Earth Colombia) and Hernán Scandizzo (OPSur Argentina) Original in Spanish. Translated by What Nancy Piñeiro. do we Understand by Extreme Energy? mages of the fire on the Deepwater and social risks, coupled with high ac- IHorizon oil rig as it was drilling the cident rates as compared to other tra- Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in ditional forms of resource extraction. April 2010 are still fresh. The explosion The era of easily recoverable hydrocar- killed eleven workers, and it was only bons is coming to an end, if it is not al- after three months of intense work ready with us. To sustain the fossil fuel that the oil company BP managed to energy matrix, companies and govern- control the situation. By then, more ments are now targeting tight sedi- than 700 million liters of crude oil and mentary formations, heavy and extra millions more of formation water had heavy crude oil, bituminous sands, and spilled into the Gulf. The magnitude of even applying biotechnological innova- the disaster reflects the risks that will tions for enhanced hydrocarbon recov- be posed by the expansion of the ex- ery in depleted wells. tractive and technological frontier. This is what analysts like Michael T. Klare Part of the same package are off- have called “extreme energy”. shore reservoirs, which are increas- ingly farther away from the coast The concept pertains not only to the and in deeper waters; some are even characteristics of hydrocarbons, but extracted after piercing through thick also to a context in which gas, oil, and layers of salt. Such fields are also en- coal exploitation entail ever greater geo- joying the “gifts” of hydraulic fracturing logical, environmental, labor-related, (fracking) used to revert the decrease Deepwater Horizon drilling unit on fire 4 (Nieznany – US Coast Guard) 5 Extreme What do we Understand by Extreme Energy? in production. Coal reservoirs deep Moreover, this expansion of frontiers under the earth, inaccessible to con- to extreme settings entails more haz- ventional mining, as well as the gas ardous working conditions. Those contained in them (coal bed meth- who work on extreme energy projects ane), spark the interest of govern- are not only exposed to harsh weath- ments and companies. Thousands of er conditions –as in the Arctic or the tons of carbon would be emitted to high seas– but also to the toxicity of the atmosphere if such hydrocarbons chemicals used for example in frack- were extracted and pumped into the ing; to biotechnological developments energy market and the petrochemical designed to increase levels of extrac- industry, further extending the decay tion and enhance hydrocarbon trans- of our fossil civilization. formation processes; and to a higher risk of explosions and other accidents The other feature of this extreme ex- at work. traction model is that in many cases accessing these reserves of gas, oil, Additionally, the gas and oil found in and coal means expanding the extrac- deep and/or tight reservoirs, or in re- tive frontier over the lands of peas- mote places, require more infrastruc- ants and small scale producers, the ture, and the deployment of logistical waters of small-scale fishermen, and support both to bring them to the well the territories of indigenous and Afro- head and to inject them into the mar- descendant peoples. The expansion ket. This translates into the drilling of goes hand in hand with rights abuses, thousands of wells, duct laying, installa- displacing populations and leading to tion of compressor stations, tanks, etc. Christening ceremony of P-52 drilling unit for exploitation of pre-salt in ultra-deep reservoirs the disappearance of knowledges and In short, it results in greater territorial (Ricardo Stuckert – Agencia Brasil) cultures, and the death of local and occupation, and industrialization of ru- regional economies. That is, it consti- ral areas and the landscape in general, Crude oil prices drop, To continue in the game, companies tutes a threat to the food and territorial together with the expulsion of popula- extreme projects continue reduce the production costs by laying sovereignty of peoples, a symbolic and tions that are not functional to the new off staff or promoting their “voluntary material violence inherent to extreme uses of the space. The sustained drop in oil prices well retirement”; doing away with labor energy that leads to an escalation of below $100 has not automatically victories (non-financial benefits like violence against bodies and non-hu- On top of that, each barrel obtained from changed the oil policies of Latin Ameri- breaks, food quality in the workplace, man Nature. That is not only due to extreme energy projects requires higher can governments nor has it made ex- etc.); getting rid of intermediaries; de- the intrusion in fragile ecosystems and energy consumption, i.e., its efficiency treme energy projects unfeasible. There veloping and applying technological in- the increasing degradation of those al- is lower. Their production also needs is undoubtedly a slowdown, but as long novations; among other variables. The ready impacted, but also to the contin- greater financial resources than conven- as there is no political will and enough corporate sector also lobbies in order ued reliance on the energy matrix that tional fuels. In many cases this means mobilizing to move towards the defos- to receive incentives like subsidies, tax is responsible for the current climate public subsidies, tax concessions and silization of the energy matrix and the concessions, and domestic prices low- crisis and global warming. artificially inflated prices, all transferred productive model (hydrocarbons as a er than their international equivalents. from the taxpayers’ pockets. non-energy input), these projects will Thus the financial costs –in addition continue to represent the new frontier to the social and environmental– are in the face of the global depletion of the transferred to the users, who pay more big conventional reservoirs. for energy and fuels, as is the case in 6 7 Extreme What do we Understand by Extreme Energy? Argentina. It should also be noted that 3,400 m of water column and anoth- countries like Ecuador and Venezu- er 3,000 m below the ocean floor in Behind the discourse of salvation ela have made oil-for-loan deals with search of hydrocarbons: a milestone and abundance with which China, pushing the frontier in the Am- in the region, in a country without a re- extreme energy projects are azon region and the Orinoco Belt. In cord of hydrocarbon exploitation. Co- promoted in our countries, there the case of the Bolivarian Republic of lombia is also moving towards deep- lie other realities like those Venezuela, the loan amounted to more water extraction in the Caribbean Sea, mentioned above. With these than 46 billion dollars. as are Nicaragua and Honduras. Chile, lines we inaugurate a series of due to successful drilling by the state- articles about the extreme nature run company ENAP, seeks to consoli- not only of the energy projects Ecuador and Venezuela have date its offshore developments in the but also of the infrastructure made oil-for-loan deals with Strait of Magellan and expand tight and finance required for the China, pushing the frontier in gas exploitation in Tierra del Fuego. reproduction of globalized the Amazon region and the Meanwhile, heavy and extra heavy capitalism. Orinoco Belt. crude oil are key in countries like Ven- Otto Candies / USCG Press. ezuela, with its Orinoco Belt, and Co- The extreme frontiers of lombia, in the plains region. Beyond There is another frontier in the region the characteristics of its hydrocarbons Latin America that keeps expanding: offshore opera- and the formations that contain them, Even though from early 2014 and well tions. Since the discovery of a pre-salt both the Amazon region and the South into the year hydrocarbons from shale field a decade ago, Brazil made a strong American Chaco constitute the new and fracking were in the agendas of bid for its