MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th February, 2022) Peru's authorities have temporarily allowed Repsol's La Pampilla refinery to load and unload hydrocarbons to secure crude oil supplies amid ecological disaster caused by oil spill, Peru's Agency for Environment Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) said.
On January 31 Peru's Environmental Ministry banned La Pampilla refinery's loading and unloading fuel until Repsol provided guarantees that another spill would not occur.
"OEFA authorized hydrocarbons loading and unloading for 10 days at the terminals 1 and 3 of Repsol's La Pampilla refinery in order to secure crude oil supplies," OEFA said in a tweet on Saturday.
On January 15, an oil spill was reported at La Pampilla refinery to the north of Lima, in the province of Callao, caused by strong waves from the Tonga volcano eruption. About 6,000 barrels of oil spilled while being unloaded from a ship at a refinery and polluted nearly 1.1 million square meters (0.4 square miles) of the sea, endangering flora and fauna of two protected natural areas covering more than 18,000 square kilometers (almost 7,000 square miles).
The government has declared an environmental emergency. The Peruvian Foreign Ministry demanded that the Spanish company Repsol pay damages.
