The Government of Peru paralyzes Repsol’s activity in the country’s waters after the oil spill

Repsol considers the measure “disproportionate and unreasonable”

MADRID, 31 (EUROPE PRESS)

The Government of Peru has announced the stoppage of hydrocarbon loading and unloading activities by Repsol in the country’s waters until the company offers guarantees that there will not be another oil spill.

“We announce the stoppage of all hydrocarbon loading and unloading activities in the Peruvian sea by the operator Repsol until it provides us with the technical guarantees that another spill will not occur in the sea,” explained the Minister of the Environment. Ruben Ramirez. “Repsol has not shown clear cleaning and remediation actions in the face of what happened,” he added.

Ramírez has pointed out that Repsol “does not guarantee” that this problem can be contained if it happens in the rest of the centers it owns on the Peruvian coast. “Repsol has not given the certainty that it can face a new spill in the other three loading and unloading lines that have been operating in the country,” he explained.

“The Ministry of the Environment will not hesitate to fulfill its role as faithful caretaker of our natural ecosystems and of our glorious sea of ​​Grau”, added Ramírez, according to the newspaper ‘La República’.

After the announcement, Repsol has published a statement in which it has described the measure as “disproportionate and unreasonable” and expresses its “full availability to collaborate with the Peruvian authorities” “in order to guarantee the supply” of the company’s products.

“The La Pampilla Refinery supplies 40 percent of the Peruvian fuel market and, therefore, Repsol will make the greatest efforts to avoid the risk of shortages of essential products for Peruvian citizens and the development of the country,” the company explained.

In addition, he assured that “Repsol continues to focus all its resources and efforts on the tasks of cleaning up the spill and supporting the affected populations and fauna”.

The oil company considers that the spill was caused by an “unpredictable maritime phenomenon” as a result of the eruption on January 15 of a volcano on an island in Tonga.

MEETING AT THE EMBASSY

Likewise, the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has warned that the Presidential Secretary General, Carlos Ernesto Jaico, “could have the same fate” as his predecessor in office, Bruno Pacheco, who resigned from office for alleged corruption.

Castillo has criticized Jaico for meeting last Monday with Repsol representatives at the Spanish Embassy in Peru and, in statements to the newspaper ‘La Noticia’, has assured that he has requested a report on the meeting.

“I just arrived from a trip from abroad, I immediately traveled to the interior of the country and they informed me of this fact (the meeting). Now I asked for a report (…) It will be the Justice that will determine responsibilities,” said the Peruvian president. .

For its part, Repsol has already issued a statement clarifying that the meeting with “various government representatives has been taking place institutionally and with the sole purpose of normalizing necessary communication.”

Thus, the company defended that the meeting “had the sole purpose of listening to the complaints and demands of the Peruvian administration, with a view to better discerning the mechanisms that allow channeling the payment of compensation that could correspond to those affected.”

Some 18,000 square meters of beach have been affected by the oil spill of nearly 12,000 barrels, a situation that has affected districts of the capital, Lima, such as Ventanilla, Santa Rosa and Ancón, although crude oil has also reached the sea of Chancay, a district located in the province of Huaral.