Environment: they confirm the sinking of an oil platform in the Peruvian sea

An oil extraction platform of the company Savia Perú SA, which had not operated since 2012, sank into the sea last Thursday and caused a spill that affected the coasts of the district Peruvian from Lobitos (north), confirmed this Saturday the Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) cited by Eph.

“The VV platform had no activity since 2012 and was included in the Abandonment Plan of the company Savia Perú SA, approved by the Ministry of Energy and Mines on April 12, 2022,” said the agency, attached to the Ministry of Environment, in a statement.

The accident occurred seven kilometers from the Lobitos district, in the province of Talara, which belongs to the department of Piura, in northern Peru.

The agency confirmed that since the emergency occurred, last Thursday, they have been supervising the lot and carrying out water sampling to gather information that allows evaluating the impact on the environmental components. In addition, investigations have already begun to clarify the responsibility for the sinking.

In the same statement they point out that they have imposed preventive measures on the oil company, such as identifying the point or points of hydrocarbon leakage, controlling and containing these sources of leakage, securing the area and superficially recovering the spilled crude oil.

The OEFA also ruled that the company must clean the entire area affected by the spill and manage the solid waste generated by the cleanup activities.

They state that the administrative measures issued by the environmental enforcement authority are mandatory for Savia Perú SA and failure to comply with these may lead to the imposition of coercive fines.

According to Eff, Savia Peru declared in a statement that “it has taken control of the situation in the area and has initiated containment, cleaning and remediation actions.” “So far, approximately 1.9 barrels of hydrocarbon (about 300,000 liters) have been detected around the platform, which has been contained and removed from the sea surface.”

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Eleven special boats of the company are in the affected area.

According to the digital media mongabay, fishermen in the area noticed the dark spots floating in the middle of the sea. They notified the General Directorate of Captaincies and Coast Guards (DICAPI) and verified the spill coming from the platform belonging to the company Savia Perú SA

Another oil spill was reported in January, when the Italian ship Mare Doricum unloaded fuel into the underwater pipelines of the La Pampilla refinery, which Repsol operates in the municipality of Ventanilla.

The Peruvian authorities estimated it at 11,900 barrels, although the company indicated that there were 10,400, and that it reached 30 beaches in the north of Lima and Callao, affecting animal species, in addition to disrupting the economy of thousands of families who live off the sea.

With information from Eph.