Peru fines Repsol for 122 thousand dollars after oil spill | News

Peru fined the transnational Repsol for almost 122 thousand dollars after the company failed to identify the affected areas after a spill of thousands of barrels of crude oil in Pacific waters that have killed more than 200 birds.

READ ALSO:

Report 22 deceased by traffic accident in Peru

In addition to this fine, Peru could also apply other measures successively until the energy company complies with the order to identify the contaminated areas, the Environmental Assessment and Enforcement Agency (OEFA) said on its social networks.

On the other hand, the Minister of the Environment, Modesto Montoya, pointed out that the cleaning of the coast affected by the oil spill is "advanced", but expressed his concern that it is being carried out superficially.

Likewise, he considered that the Repsol company is seeking to disregard its responsibility in this ecological disaster.

"There is an advanced cleaning of the coasts, but only the superficial part. On the islands that we have visited we see a foam, we have found about 200 dead birds, 1,000 affected birds, and the Repsol company has not yet started cleaning that foam, Rather, he is looking for reasons, pretexts, to show that they are not guilty of that foam," said Minister

In this sense, the Spanish multinational, responsible for the spill of almost 12,000 barrels of crude oil in the Ventanilla Sea, in Peru, announced that it has begun the "final stage" of cleaning up the affected area.

Through a statement published on February 7, the firm explained that it has begun to withdraw equipment, such as "vessels, heavy machinery and containment barriers in areas where they are no longer necessary."

Peru preliminarily identified in January that the areas affected at sea and on land by the spill covered just over 113 square kilometers, a territory larger than Paris.

The spill, caused on January 15, has affected 21 Peruvian beaches and caused the death of various marine species, in addition to seriously harming the fishermen in the area.