Lima, April 10 (IANS/EFE) The Camisea consortium, which is producing natural gas from Peru's largest fields, said it paid $168.3 million in royalties to the government in the first quarter of this year.
Royalty payments totaled $54.4 million in March alone, the consortium said.
The government of Cuzco region, where the gas fields are located, received $84.1 million, or approximately 50 percent of the total royalties, in the January-March period.
The Camisea consortium has paid $5.26 billion in royalties to Peru since the project started in 2004.
The Camisea fields hold some of Latin America's largest natural gas reserves.
Camisea's proven reserves total some 8.7 trillion cubic feet.
The Camisea consortium is made up of Spain's Repsol, Argentina's Pluspetrol and Tecpetrol, US-based Hunt Oil, South Korea's SK Energy and Algeria's Sonatrach.
--IANS/EFE
