The famous tropical sandy Mae Ram Phueng Beach around 200 kilometers southeast of Bangkok was then closed to visitors on Saturday, local media reported. Meanwhile, it became known that in an accident two weeks ago off the coast of Peru, many more oil leaked than previously thought.
According to official estimates, around 50,000 liters of crude oil spilled into the sea from a leak in an underwater pipeline belonging to the Star Petroleum Refining Company in the Gulf of Thailand on Tuesday. A day later, the flow of oil was stopped. The oil slick had covered an area of 47 square kilometers before reaching the Rayong coast, local media reported.
The Navy and other aid workers are now feverishly trying to clean up the beaches and contain the damage, the Bangkok Post quoted Pollution Control Department director-general Atthapol Charoenchansa as saying. The use of chemical dispersant in the past few days may have reduced the damage.
The consequences are probably less than in the environmental disaster of 2013. At that time, a leak in another pipeline caused an oil spill and polluted beaches in Rayong. It took months to remedy the consequences for fishing and tourism.
The Peruvian Ministry of the Environment said that about 6,000 barrels (159 liters each) oil leaked, as initially estimated, but 11,900 barrels. The Spanish oil company Repsol, which operates the affected La Pampilla refinery in Ventanilla, spoke of 10,396 barrels in a statement on Friday and stated that it had also transmitted this information to the responsible authorities as part of “continuous cooperation”. The elimination of the oil spill has the highest priority, and the company is using all the necessary human and technical resources to do so.
Peruvian Foreign Minister Óscar Maúrtua made serious allegations. “The information on the actual number of oil spills in Ventanilla confirms the ecocide and reveals Repsol’s lack of transparency,” the foreign ministry of the South American country Maúrtua quoted in a tweet on Saturday evening (local time). “The government will announce a drastic sanction.”
The accident happened while a tanker was being unloaded. High waves after the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano near Tonga caused the accident, it said. oil has since contaminated more than 20 beaches north of the capital Lima. The prosecutor responsible accused those responsible at the refinery of having reacted too late to the oil spill. A judge barred four Repsol executives from leaving Peru for 18 months on Friday.
Source: Nachrichten
