On January 15, 2021, an Italian-flagged vessel was unloading crude oil at Peru's La Pampilla Refinery, near Callao, the country's main port, when the vessel's captain noticed a dark slick emerging on the surface of the sea. Despite the initial alarms, the operations continued. When the refinery, whose owner is the Spanish transnational company Repsol, reacted, it was too late: 12,000 barrels of crude oil had been spilled into the sea, and, in a matter of hours, contaminated 46 beaches, two protected natural areas, 7,139,000 square meters of sea, and 1,800,000 square meters of soil.
Peruvian authorities estimate that 15,000 people—most of them artisanal fishermen and their families—and between 300 and 500 marine species were affected in the biggest environmental tragedy in Peru.
According to the initial version of events, the hoses of the ship came off violently from the PLEM, the device that joins them to the underwater pipeline of the terminal, causing the fuel to escape. According to Repsol, this happened due to the sea swell caused hours before by the explosion of the Tonga underwater volcano. But the facts disprove this.
An investigation by the independent Peruvian media outlet Epicentro.tv seeks to prove: that Repsol did not follow its own protocols for crude oil discharge actions; that after the first alerts Repsol did not take early control of possible damages; and that the Peruvian state was not and is not prepared to face a problem of this magnitude.
