LIMA ( Associated Press) – Peruvian President Pedro Castillo asked the energy company Repsol on Monday to compensate those affected by an oil spill in the Pacific, after his government sued the company for 4,500 million dollars in local justice on Friday. Dollars.
Castillo added that the Ministry of the Environment “has precise instructions to supervise the cleaning of the ecosystem” that in January impacted on 106 square kilometers, an area larger than the city of Paris, killing marine animals and polluting the sea along the coast of Peru.
In March, the government said that Repsol had agreed to pay $805 to each of those affected as part of the start of compensation not yet calculated for the spill. At the moment the company affirms that they have paid some 7.8 million dollars to the 5,500 affected who have been identified.
On Friday, the government announced that it had sued Repsol before the Peruvian justice system for 4.5 billion dollars. The company on Saturday described the lawsuit as unfounded because the estimates “lack the slightest basis to support the figures indicated.” The company says it has so far spent $150 million on cleanup activities and helping those affected.
The government indicated in its civil lawsuit for damages before the Superior Court of Lima that it represents “diffuse interests” of some 700,000 injured parties, which include not only the fishermen, but also the entire chain of workers who worked on the contaminated beaches.
The spill occurred on January 15 and lasted at least eight minutes during the unloading of oil from the Italian-flagged ship Mare Doricum to a Repsol refinery. Peru claims that the dumping of 11,900 barrels of crude oil into one of the most biodiverse seas in the world is the “worst ecological disaster” in its history.
The Spanish energy company assures that the ship is to blame for the spill, while the ship’s owners respond by indicating that “incorrect or misleading” information is not provided because the investigations continue.
