Madrid/The accident of a dredge that was transporting oil caused the spill of part of the 31,000 liters of crude oil it was carrying. The accident occurred around 6:40 p.m. this Monday, when the vehicle, belonging to the Crudo Oeste Transportation company, overturned while traveling on the Vía Blanca at the entrance to Puerto Escondido (Mayabeque).
The driver of the harrow was taken to the town of Santa Cruz, where he was treated for the injuries suffered, without life-threatening risk. according to the Cuba-Petroleum Union (Cupet)who announced the news on their social networks around midnight.
The vehicle’s load came from the wells to the Puerto Escondido battery and, in response to its spill, specialized teams went to the scene trying to recover as much of the fuel as possible, in addition to mitigating “the consequences caused by the spill.” So far, it is unknown how much oil has been definitively lost and the causes of the incident, although among the comments to the note attention has been drawn to the dangers of the road on which it occurred.
“Common accidents in that area. I was a company worker and look how we lost colleagues in them,” wrote a user, identified as Carlos Manuel Martínez Peña. Another commentator mentions the “tremendous pothole there” and although some point to the possibility that the driver was driving at excessive speed, the state of the roads or the wheels of the harrow are among the causes most cited by users, who celebrate that, at least, there was no loss of human life.
“Common accidents in that area. I was a company worker and look how we lost colleagues in them,” wrote a user, identified as Carlos Manuel Martínez Peña.
The accident occurred on the same day that a high electricity deficit had been forecast, exceeding 1,800 megawatts (MW) during peak hour. According to the daily part of the Electrical Union of Cubamost of it is due to the shortage of crude oil, responsible for the lack of at least 651 MW in the average hour, compared to the 395 MW of the thermal plants – the effects in that time frame were almost 1,000 MW. The data, finally, must have been worse than expected, since, according to an update from the state company, unit 1 of the CTE Ernesto Guevara De La Serna, in Santa Cruz, left the system due to a problem in the CAR reducer.
The oil lost yesterday was foreseeably destined for one of the thermoelectric plants, since it belonged to Cupet, which uses highly corrosive national crude oil in these plants.
The most recent oil spill, although for very different reasons, was the one that occurred in Matanzas last may. The tank contained 500 cubic meters of fuel stored ten years earlier in two tanks of the old José Martí thermoelectric plant and it was never known how much was recovered.
Another great loss occurred in an accident railway in Sancti Spíritus last December, when two trains collided, one of which was coming from Ciego de Ávila with a load of crude oil that would be processed at the small Sergio Soto refinery in Sancti Spíritus.
