Oil spill in Ventanilla. The company Repsol, owner of the La Pampilla refinery, ruled on the oil spill in the Ventanilla sea, which has already affected 18 thousand square meters of beaches. The firm asserted that is not responsible for the environmental disaster unforeseen by man this last January 15th.
“We did not cause the ecological disaster. I cannot tell you who is responsible”, told RPP Tine Van Den Wall Bake, Manager of Communication and Institutional Relations of Repsol.
LIVE oil spill: latest news, reactions from authorities and affected beaches
Along these lines, the manager indicated that the unloading of the ship with crude oil began on Friday, January 14, so the next day, after reporting the explosion of the volcano in Tonga, they requested information on whether this phenomenon affected the Peruvian coast.
“We consulted the Peruvian Navy on maritime traffic to see if there was a tsunami alert. They confirm that there was no type of alert for the Peruvian coast and that we could continue unloading the ship,” Wall Bake told RPP.
After that, the representative narrated, at 5:18 pm on January 15, the “anomalous swell” arrived when 628,956 barrels had already been unloaded out of a total of 985,696 that were in the vessel.
“At that moment when the wave arrives, what it does is break the ropes and throw the ship against our installation. The discharge is stopped, the discharge pump is totally deactivated and the contingency plan is applied. Divers are called, the floating barriers are removed and then the competent authorities are notified to Dicapi, OEFA, Osinergmin, “he explained.
Wall Bake assured that at 12:08 a.m. on Sunday, January 16, the Peruvian Maritime Authority was present, an entity that carried out an inspection and issued a report at 2:20 a.m. in which it was confirmed that the vessel had been correctly deployed. contingency plan.
At another time, the spokeswoman denied that Repsol had reported that it was 7 gallons of oil and not 6,000 barrels as stated by the Environment Minister, Rubén Ramírez. The representative indicated that if it had been a spill under normal conditions, it would have surfaced in the same place, but that the high waves dispersed the fuel very far from the area of the incident.
“We did not give that information, what happens is that by law you have to report within the first twelve hours you have to report a volume and the first thing that was seen was simply some iridescence in the sea, no spill was seen. What the anomalous waves did was to pour it 18 meters under the sea and then transport it very far,” the executive said in her defense.
In addition, the manager of Repsol He was unable to point out which authorities he contacted on Sunday when the oil was already noticeable, but they did accept that it was an ecological disaster and that it was reported to the Captaincy of the Navy I was aware of what happened.
“As soon as we have known, we have spoken with the Captaincy immediately and in fact we have tried to enter that same night (Sunday, January 16) to try to start cleaning, but the beach was blocked,” he said.
Repsol ruled
For its part, Repsol stated in a statement that they are deploying all possible means to remediate the coastline due to the incident in Ventanilla caused by the volcanic eruption in Tonga.
Osinergmin ordered closure of terminal No. 2
Osinergmin established last night to suspend operations at the multibuoy terminal No. 2 of the La Pampilla refinery. This until it is possible to determine what were the causes that generated the oil spill on the beaches of the districts of Ventanilla, Santa Rosa and Ancón.
Along these lines, the entity explained that “if breaches of technical and safety standards are found, the corresponding actions will be issued.” For its part, the Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office of northwestern Lima initiated an investigation for the alleged crime of environmental contamination against the legal representatives of La Pampilla SA
Oil spill: What sanctions could Repsol face?
The head of the Ministry of the Environment, Rubén Ramírez, in communication with the press, declared that there would be a sanction against Repsol, and this could amount to up to 30,000 tax units (UIT), which is equivalent to approximately S/ 138 million.
“There will be a sanction according to the omission or action that the company has taken. Of that they have no doubt. The fact is not only to have warned in time, but also to have described the magnitude of the disaster. This is a sanction of up to 30,000 UIT”, the minister specified in statements to TV Peru.
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