Indigenous Argentine group sues energy multinationals

A major group of indigenous people living in Argentine Patagonia are taking some of the world's biggest oil and gas multinationals to court for "environmental contamination," Greenpeace said.

The Mapuche are suing American giant Exxon, French company Total and the Argentina-based Pan American Energy, which is part owned by BP.

Two more Argentine oil and gas companies -- YPF SA and Pampa Energia -- are named in the lawsuit, along with the local Neuquen province authorities and Treater, a local company operating a treatment plant for fracking waste.

The Neuquen Mapuche Confederation accuses the oil and gas companies of harming the environment with "dangerous waste" due to "deficient treatment" close to the town of Anelo, some 1,200 kms south of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

"It's quite a sensitive situation," Martin Alvarez, an expert with the Observatorio Petrolero Sur charity that monitors energy use, told AFP.

"It's affecting the inhabitants of popular neighborhoods because the waste treatment plants are too close." Following an investigation, Greenpeace published a report in which it accused Total and British-Dutch group Shell -- which does not figure in the Mapuche lawsuit -- of dumping "highly toxic oily sludge waste."