MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: New oil spill recorded off Bahía Blanca

The German oil company Oiltanking was involved in both incidents a fortnight apart

Argentine authorities in the city port of Bahía Blanca in the province of Buenos Aires said a new oil spill had been reported after the one late last month. However, this time around the damage would have been controlled in less time, it was explained.

The new spill Wednesday at 5.30 am was due to a malfunction in an unloading maneuver in the monobuoy operated by the company Oiltanking, which said in a statement that this time it acted more quickly to contain the leak. The incident also involved the tanker San Matías.

”The contingency plan for spills of hydrocarbons in water (PLANACON) was activated by notifying the Argentine Coast Guard (PNA), Bahía Blanca District,“ the document read.

The accident occurred when a tanker was unloading crude oil through the monobuoy, which connects to a pipeline at the terminal. The crude is stored or sent by pipeline to different refineries, explained the company.

It also mentioned that a pressure measurement element failed, causing a leak that was observed by company personnel on board, forcing an ”immediate interruption of operations“ and ”remedial work“ to be set in motion for the containment, control, and total removal of the spill.

The company added that ”containment and control works were carried out on the slick by means of barriers and absorbent booms, in charge of the contractor company CINTRA, which contained the entire spill.“

Environmentalists and representatives of the fishing sector condemned the incident: ”Once again it happened at the Punta Cigüeña monobuoy in front of Punta Alta. As far as I know, this time the containment system worked, but, of course, it is never 100% what can be recovered, damage is always generated in the water,” said Lucas Beier, a legal representative of the artisanal fishermen, in a radio interview.

The Environment Ministry of the province of Buenos Aires halted all operations by Oiltanking and requested an immediate review by the federal Energy Secretariat to determine if the company may continue operating.

Sloppy maneuvering mooring the vessel Cabo Sounión to another Oiltanking monobuoy on Dec. 26 in the afternoon produced a spill but no action was taken until 3 pm the following day. As a result of that incident, the communities of Bahía Blanca and Coronel Rosales filed a criminal complaint against Oiltanking Ebytem S.A. Puerto Rosales Maritime Terminal. They claim that the company did not communicate the problem in time or properly activate the contingency plan.

After the first episode, the company (which has been operating an oil pipeline in the region since 2008) began a remediation plan that is being reviewed by the Ministry of the Environment of the Province of Buenos Aires.