At least two kilometres of Peru’s central coast and two beaches were dirtied by oil spilled from a discharge ship rocked by waves caused by the eruption of a volcano in Tonga, Environment Minister Ruben Ramirez said on Monday.
The ministry supervised the cleaning of the area in the coastal district of Ventanilla, where the spill happened on Sunday during the unloading of crude oil from the ship to supply the La Pampilla refinery, owned by the Spanish company Repsol.
“It is unfortunate. I am seeing that there is a serious impact on the coastal marine area. Initially, two and a half kilometres (of damage) were reported, but now we see that it has affected two beaches,” Ramirez told reporters.
The Pampilla refinery said in a statement that “the violence of the waves” on Saturday due to the eruption of the volcano generated the “limited spill” of oil at a time when a ship was unloading.