The Prime Minister, Mirtha Vásquez, said that political parties – among them the official Peru Libre of Marxist tendency – are calling for the rescission of the contract and even the expropriation of Repsol’s La Pampilla Refinery, due to the damage caused by the spill that expands while time passes.
“You can’t really advance an opinion at this time,” Vásquez told local radio station RPP on the subject. “I have heard various terms, rescission, nullity and even expropriation. I think that happens in making a legal analysis of what type of contract and we are precisely reviewing it at this time,” said the head of the cabinet of ministers.
The La Pampilla Refinery, which has 54% of Peru’s fuel refining capacity, was bought by Repsol in 1996 in the midst of a privatization process in the country.
Repsol representatives in Lima were not immediately available for comment on the matter.
The spill occurred in mid-January when the pipeline of a ship that supplied the refinery broke and the crude oil invaded the sea and beaches of several districts, according to the company due to “violent waves” after the eruption of an underwater volcano thousands of miles away. kilometers in Tonga in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The Peruvian Navy, which warned of “anomalous waves” but ruled out a tsunami on the day of the eruption, says that Repsol must prove that the cause of the spill was due to strong waves in an event that the government of leftist president Pedro Castillo has described as as an “ecological disaster”.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Environment Ministry said in a statement that the affected area covers up to 9 million square meters, according to a report from the entity over the weekend.
Vásquez stated that aside from a sanction against Repsol and the demand for reparation of the affected areas, the prosecution is investigating the case for alleged environmental crime and the State is also evaluating compensation for those affected.
“They cannot argue that they are not responsible. They are and therefore they have to think about the consequences,” he stressed. “It is still necessary to identify how far this spill continues to spread,” the prime minister said.
The company has not specified the volume spilled, but the Government says that, as reported by Repsol, it would be 6,000 barrels.
The president of Repsol Peru, Jaime Fernández-Cuesta, admitted on Sunday night that the refinery did not react in time and that only the day after the spill did they learn the magnitude of the disaster. “We are assuming the consequences of this disaster, from the first day and without sparing a dollar,” he told the television station Frequency Latina.
Repsol reported Sunday in a statement that the cleanup “is progressing favorably” with 1,800 workers and 55 ships and that “it has managed to move” 6,000 cubic meters of affected land.
Hundreds of people, mostly young people, marched on Sunday in protest against the Repsol company for the spill and reached the vicinity of the refinery, in the Ventanilla district, located north of the city of Lima. (Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Ricardo Figueroa)
Source From: Ambito
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