Peru bars Repsol from unloading crude after oil spill at La Pampilla mooring

Peru’s Environment Minister Ruben Ramirez said on January 31 that Repsol (Spain) would not be permitted to take delivery of feedstock for its La Pampilla refinery until it could provide adequate technical guarantees with respect to its ability to handle oil spills.

Ramirez declared that the Spanish company was already performing inadequately, as evidenced by the spill that occurred at one of the four moorings it operates at La Pampilla, which is not far from Peru’s capital city Lima, on January 15. “Repsol has not provided assurances that it could deal with another spill at the other three moorings it operates [at La Pampilla],” Argus Media quoted him as saying.

Under these circumstances, he said, Peruvian authorities cannot allow the Spanish company to unload or upload crude for the refinery.

This decision effectively suspends operations at the 117,000 barrel per day La Pampilla refinery. As such, it raises concerns about petroleum product supplies in Peru. The country’s only other major domestic source of fuel is the 65,000 bpd La Talara plant, which is owned by the national oil company (NOC) Petroperu, but it has been offline for about two years while undergoing modernisation. Nevertheless, Petroperu said at the weekend that it was capable of covering local demand.

Meanwhile, Ramirez also said on January 31 that he disputed Repsol’s claims that it had already recovered 35% of the crude spilled on January 15 as a result of using satellite and artificial intelligence techniques. The firm has not done enough to clarify its plans to the government, he said. “Repsol has not demonstrated clear actions regarding clean-up and remediation,” he commented, according to an Argus Media report.

The spill occurred as the Mare Doricum, an Italian-flagged Suezmax tanker, unloaded a 1mn-barrel cargo of crude at La Pampilla for delivery to Repsol’s refinery. Peru’s Environment Ministry has reported that the incident resulted 11,900 barrels of oil to leak into the ocean, subsequently causing 44 km of coastline to be contaminated. Repsol initially estimated the volume of the spill at less than 1 barrel but has now put the figure at 10,396 barrels.

The Spanish company gained control of the La Pampilla refinery in 1996 in a privatisation sale.