Petroecuador confirms spill of some 1,200 barrels of crude oil on the north coast of Ecuador

Some 1,200 barrels of oil spilled on Ecuador’s north coast after a tank belonging to state oil company Petroecuador exceeded its maximum capacity during a crude reversal process, contaminating four linear kilometers of a tourist beach, authorities said Thursday. .

The incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday at the Esmeraldas maritime terminal, when a sump tank exceeded its capacity of about 188 barrels and began to spill crude oil into a containment pool that could not hold the volume of hydrocarbon either, causing the spill.

“It is estimated that around 1,200 barrels were spilled, (…) not all of them went to the beach, a part was contained in the pool inside the Petroecuador facilities,” Transportation manager Rafael Armendáriz told reporters. .

But half of the spilled volume came out of the Petroecuador facilities and due to dragging of the current affected some 4 linear kilometers of Las Palmas beach, explained officials from the oil company.

Petroecuador added that so far it has managed to control 90% of the impact on land and 60% of the progress of the stain in the sea by recovering contaminated material.

The Minister of the Environment, José Dávalos, assured the local channel Ecuavisa that the spill affected crabs and possibly fish and birds in the area and awaits a report from Petroecuador to issue the corresponding sanction.

“In any of the cases there has been a failure, be it human or of the system, and that is subject to a sanction,” said Dávalos. “Works could take a week to fully clean up the site.”

Export and fuel supply activities were not affected after the incident.

Petroecuador’s manager, Ramón Correa, assured that an external commission is conducting an investigation to determine the causes of the incident and said that among the hypotheses are negligence, mechanical damage and even possible sabotage.