Chevron apologises in Brazil Congress for oil spill

Brasilia: Chevron’s top official in Brazil has apologised to lawmakers for the oil spill off Rio de Janeiro state which could jeopardise its access to a huge new offshore oil field.

“I sincerely apologise to the Brazilian people and government,” George Buck, president of Chevron’s subsidiary in Brazil, told the chamber of deputies. “I would like to reiterate that we have deep respect for Brazil, for the Brazilian people, for the environment, for the laws and institutions of this country,” he added.

Chevron could lose its authorisation to take part in exploration of Brazil’s sub-salt oil fields, which Brazil’s national oil agency ANP says has reserves that could surpass 100 billion barrels of high-quality recoverable oil.

These fields are off the country’s southeast Atlantic coast beneath kilometers of ocean, bedrock, and hot salt-beds. The government had planned to examine Chevron’s bid for sub-salt oil exploration this week, but ANP chief Harold Lima said the US firm now finds itself in a “very complicated situation.”

On 8 November, a helicopter from Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras spotted a crude oil slick on the ocean and the leakage was traced by an underwater robot to a well operated by Chevron 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) deep near the Frade field, 370 kilometers (231 miles) northeast of the Rio de Janeiro coast.

Brazilian authorities say the spill is now under control and that the oil slick has been reduced to two square km. But Chevron now faces a slew of fines from federal and Rio state authorities that together could exceed $145 million. “We are going to thoroughly investigate the accident and present the results to the Brazilian people… so that this does not happen again either here or in any other part of the world,” Buck said.

On Monday, he said, 2,400 barrels of oil seeped into the ocean between 8 and 15 November but ANP and the non-governmental organisation respectively report that the number was 3,000 and 29,904 barrels.

AFP