Repsol seeks to avoid more than S/66 million in fines applied by OEFA

To date, the La Pampilla SAA Refinery (Relapasa) of Repsol already appealed more than S/66 million in fines filed by the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) and is evaluating challenging a sixth of S/3 million 785,915 (823,025 UIT), according to what the company stated to La República. In total there are six fines from seven administrative sanctioning processes initiated by the inspection body, which in total add up to S/70 million 246,709.

“The appeal period is under evaluation regarding these fines, no action has yet been carried out and the company’s legal services area is evaluating it,” said José Reyes Ruiz, Relapasa’s security manager during a forum organized by the College of Engineers of Peru (CIP).

The sixth fine that the company seeks to appeal, referred to file no. 0246-2022-OEFA/DFAI/PAS, is for failing to comply with the administrative measure to secure the area, containment, recovery and cleanup of the hydrocarbon. In addition, today we know that a first appeal has already been resolved in favor of the company in second instance.

It should be noted that the fines do not compensate for the damage caused, but are applied to sanction non-compliance with the rules.

Economic impact of the spill

Last January 15 marked one year of the spill of more than 11,000 barrels of oil in Ventanilla, considered one of the largest ecological disasters ever recorded in the Peruvian sea. In this context, a legitimate question is whether the State knows what the economic impact generated by this fact is, an evaluation that encompasses all its dimensions. The answer is no. However, the Vice Minister of Environmental Management of the Ministry of the Environment (Minam) told La República that it is a work that is being carried out and will be completed in 8 months.

“In effect, we are carrying out a study to determine and economically quantify the damage generated to the ecosystem as a consequence of the oil spill originated in the Mariano coastal zone. We hope to have the results for the month of September. It is something that is already being done and we are fully engaged in this work because it seems important to us to identify the environmental damage and, above all, the economic valuation of the effects on the ecosystem,” said Vice Minister Giuliana Becerra Celis.

For his part, the president of the Chapter of Fisheries Engineering and Aquaculture of the CIP, elmer snow valleyquestioned why the State took so much time to prepare this report.

“How much it is being affected, we heard the vice minister say that a valuation study is being carried out that could be done by September. It’s too much time. It is incredible that nothing of valuation has been done in this past year. How much is this economic activity losing? [pesca], how many people are affected, how much Repsol is responding with. You need to know exactly how much you lose and how much you must respond with,” said Nieves.

Finally, the engineer noted that the area affected by the spill provides direct human consumption around 8% of the national total of fishery products.

Congress demands investigation into Repsol case

This newspaper revealed that the OEFA Environmental Control Court (TFA) ruled the first resolution in favor of relapsawhich will prevent the company from paying more than S/5 million referred to a fine.

In addition, we revealed a conflict of interest: the technical secretary of the TFA has a spousal relationship with an executive of the company.

For these reasons, the Consumer Defense Commission of the Congress of the Republic sent a letter to the comptroller, Nelson Shack, requesting that he initiate a control action to resolution no. 003-2023 OEFA/TFA-SE.

The data

More sanctions. The osinergmin has filed five fines against Relapasa totaling more than S/12 million, while Serfor’s penalty amounts to S/7 million and is still in the appeal period.