Pluspetrol SA, an Argentine oil company, announced it would stop stop working in Pichanaki, an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it looked for potential gasoline deposits, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The oil company was asked to leave by the government last Thursday after ongoing protests turned deadly. A demonstrator was killed in the Junin province, and in four days, about 75 protesters and a policeman were injured. 

A storage area used by Petroplus was the site of one of the protests, as a group stormed the military base. When police were driving back the protesters, a 25-year-old man was killed. 

The demonstrators have accused the company of contaminating local rivers and soil, comprised primarily indigenous people. But the Energy and Mines Minister Eleodoro Mayorga does not believe the company has broken any rules. 

Petroplus had set rules in its contract, which Mayorga believes were followed, but he still reportedly told the company to leave the block so that the government could investigate its activities. 

Pluspetrol denied causing any environmental damage and states it has met all the legal requirements for exploratory work and received consent from the more than 2,000 farmers in the area.

As the company has agreed to withdraw, the company announced it would remove all its remaining equipment from the area, known as Block 108, in the days ahead.

A spokesman for the company denies it is being forced to leave, chalking its exit up to the work simply being finished.

The official said, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, “We are going to leave the zone as a result of the fact that our activities are close to ending.”

A statement released by Pluspetrol said, “It is worth noting that we have met all legal, environmental and social requirements to continue exploratory work in the area.”

Pluspetrol began its exploratory activities in Block 108 with the approval of the government in 2014.

Aside from this recent public relations set back, Pluspetrol is striving to end conflicts in the northern Amazon region, where indigenous protesters have taken control of oil wells and put a stop to oil production in the country's largest oil block.

Protests and demonstrations regarding foreign oil companies have gone on for a decade in Peru.