On 11 March 2020, indigenous leaders from Peru file a complaint against oil company Pluspetrol to the National Contact Point for the OECD guidelines... Originally an Argentinian company, with its headquarters in Amsterdam via a “letterbox construction”, it has allegedly serious caused severe environmental pollution, violating the rights of indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. According to the complaint, Pluspetrol also acts contrary to OECD provisions on taxation and transparency, because its Dutch office has set up fiscal constructions that make tax avoidance possible...

With their complaint, the indigenous leaders, and co-complainants [...] ask the National Contact Point (NCP) [...] to examine Pluspetrol’s social policy and to mediate between the communities and the company so that the company takes its responsibility and cleans up the pollution in the rainforest.

Following an investigation by the NCP in 2019, Minister Kaag (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) urged the Dutch oil and gas sector to come up with an action plan to improve compliance with the OECD guidelines by the first quarter of 2020. This complaint clearly shows that policymakers need to do more to bring the activities of oil and gas companies into line with international standards for responsible business.