Second Oil Spill Along the Peruvian Coast
The La Pampilla oil refinery, owned by the company Repsol, has been accused of spilling 8 barrels of oil along Peru's pacific coast by Peru's Minister of Environment, Ruben Ramirez. La Pampilla is the same refinery that caused the spill of a massive 6000 barrels of oil from tanker MARE DORICUM earlier this month, the cleanup and remediation of which is still ongoing.
Repsol, however, completely denies the occurrence of a secondary oil spill. They stated that the so-called spill was merely the upwelling of oil due to their workers withdrawing equipment for the cleanup of the initial spill. And as such, there were containment barriers, skimmers, and absorbent elements in place to contain the oil which has been contained. Peru's energy regulator Osinergmin seconded this after an investigation and reported that the oil had indeed been contained.
However, the environment ministry is reluctant to be accommodating to the company. The environment minister stated that the ministry was dissatisfied with the company's cleanup, and they will be uncompromising regarding the new oil spill. The minister noted that the ministry would take necessary measures with the Attorney General's office and the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA). Peruvian authorities are currently seeking a travel ban on the executives of Repsol for 18 months while the probe into the oil spill is underway.
MARE DORICUM
VSEVOLOD BOBROV
EVER GIVEN
ANETA
GLOVIS SPLENDOR
EXEMPLAR
USGOVERNMENT VESSEL3
