On Jan. 15, 2022, more than 11,000 barrels of oil spilled into the ocean off the Peruvian coast. It flowed from a pipeline that had broken while the Mare Doricum, an Italian tanker, unloaded oil at Terminal No. 2 of the La Pampilla refinery in the region of Callao, near Lima. On Jan. 24, a second spill, smaller than the first, occurred at the same pipeline. The oil spread to more than 700 hectares (1,730 acres), according to Peruvian authorities, becoming the largest spill in the country’s history. It entered two protected areas, killed hundreds of birds and mammals and upended the livelihoods of thousands of fishers.

Three years later, little of the environmental damage has been remedied by Repsol, a multinational company from Spain that owns the La Pampilla refinery. The 18 rehabilitation plans that Repsol presented before Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines (MINEM in Spanish) have been rejected, according to a report released in January by the Lima-based nonprofit CooperAcción with support from Oxfam.

Those plans, which should have proposed solutions to the impacts of the environmental tragedy, “contain incomplete, insufficient and — in some cases — erroneous information,” the report stated. Despite the magnitude of the oil spill, Repsol has not rehabilitated the affected ecosystems, the report stated.

However, Repsol Peru told Mongabay Latam the rehabilitation plans have not been rejected but are still under evaluation by the authorities and that in November 2024, the company answered the authorities’ most recent questions about those plans.

The report, released in Spanish and titled “Did Repsol clean up the mess? Current situation and pending challenges for the recovery of marine life three years after the oil spill,” said the oil company’s plans “lack an adequate environmental characterization, exhibit critical flaws in their intervention strategies and omit risks for human health and ecosystems.”

Oil spills are a recurring tragedy in Peru. On Dec. 20, 2024, a new oil spill occurred off the coast of Lobitos in Talara province, in the northern region of Piura. Crude oil contaminated five beaches in the area and almost reached the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve, a protected area the government had just established earlier that year. In July, another spill had occurred in the same area.

In this article, Mongabay presents five keys for reviewing the Respol case and understanding the impacts of oil-related activities off the coast of Peru.

1. Three years of environmental impunity

The oil industry’s activities off the coast of Peru have caused several disasters. The largest was the Repsol spill. The impacts of this disaster still linger in the ecosystems and for the people whose economic activities directly depend on this area of the Pacific Ocean.

“Repsol’s strategy is to wait for the oil that remains in the ocean to be purified naturally in two years, without presenting technical evidence that supports this estimate,” the report by CooperAcción and Oxfam stated. The analysis was prepared with support from Diana Papoulias, a biologist with experience analyzing oil spills in other countries, and it noted that entities such as Peru’s National Forest and Wildlife Service (SERFOR in Spanish), its National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP in Spanish) and MINEM, based on experiences in other countries, estimated the recovery could take between five years and 23 years, or even longer for certain species.

The report asserted that approximately 65% of the crude oil spilled into the ocean had not been recovered. However, Repsol Peru stated, “the cleanliness of the ocean and of the beaches is not only verified by traveling to the beaches and resorts, but the rehabilitation plans and information submitted confirm that the indicators of hydrocarbon content are below the levels of national and international standards.” Repsol Peru added that “of the results of physical-chemical tests of more than 14,000 samples submitted, 100 percent meet national water standards, and more than 99 percent meet international beach standards.”

2. Threats to marine protected areas

The large amount of oil Repsol spilled into the ocean spread several kilometers north of Callao. Along the way, the oil reached two protected areas: the Guano Islands, Islets and Capes National Reserve System and the Ancón Reserved Zone.

The CooperAcción and Oxfam report stated that Repsol’s plans only proposed four monitoring sessions over two years, without direct actions to restore the ecosystem or repopulate harmed species. “Not only does this evade responsibility, but it also fails to comply with the corrective measures ordered by SERNANP for the affected protected areas,” it stated.

“There are areas where there is a concentration of oil that is recontaminating [the areas], so there is a need to finish the cleanup, [and] do it well, so it does not continue to contaminate [those areas],” said Ana Leyva, CooperAcción’s program coordinator and an author of the report.

Juan Carlos Sueiro, the fisheries director for the NGO Oceana in Peru, told Mongabay Latam that oil spreads very quickly in the ocean and, in this case, it moved north, toward the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve. This new protected area is home to more than 70% of the marine species in Peru, as well as endangered species such as sea turtles and seahorses. “A film [of oil] forms that is very thin but very damaging and deadly for species,” Sueiro said.

3. Penalties against the responsible companies

Repsol has accumulated 22 administrative procedures related to the 2022 oil spill and has been fined more than $72 million for hiding information, providing false data and acting negligently in the containment and cleaning of the spilled oil, according to the report by CooperAcción and Oxfam.

The report noted that initially, Repsol had said that only 0.16 barrels of crude oil had spilled, affecting an area of 2.5 square meters (27 square feet). This claim was later disproven.

The company has also been penalized for complicating the inspection work by neglecting to submit key information about the affected people and the environmental and social damage, according to the report.

Peru’s Environmental Evaluation and Enforcement Agency (OEFA in Spanish) told Mongabay Latam that it initiated 16 administrative sanctioning procedures against Repsol, whose registered name is Refinería La Pampilla S.A.A., for the environmental emergencies on Jan. 15 and 24, 2022. According to OEFA, of the 16 administrative procedures, five have a final judgment, with fines totaling 64,805,996 Peruvian soles (about $17.9 million), which the company has paid.

OEFA also reported there were still seven fines imposed in trial court that totaled 69,554,221 soles (about $19.2 million). One of these fines, amounting to 5,350,000 soles (about $1.5 million), is still within the window of time to be challenged, while the company is appealing the remaining six before the Environmental Control Court.

The oil company said that, to date, it has paid more than $22.2 million in fines. Repsol Peru also stated that it had allocated more than 1 billion soles (about $276 million) toward “cleaning efforts, remediation and social compensation.”

4. Endangered species

Thousands of birds and hundreds of mammals died from being trapped in oil from Repsol’s spill. Although the exact number of affected animals cannot be determined, SERFOR sued the oil company for “acting with cruelty and causing the deaths of 1,852 wild animal specimens.”

According to SERFOR, 28 marine species were affected. Among them are the guanay cormorant (Leucocarbo bougainvillii), the Peruvian booby (Sula variegata), the red-legged cormorant (Phalacrocorax gaimardi), the Inca tern (Larosterna inca), the sea otter (Enhydra lutris), the South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens), four species of seagulls, the Peruvian pelican (Pelecanus thagus), the pectoral sandpiper (Calidris melanotos), the Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti), the blue-footed booby (Sula nebouxii) and more.

“Marine life has taken a hit, and it is going to have a slow recuperation process if there is no human action. There are many methods to help the ocean to recover. Repsol knows it, and they should use [these methods],” Leyva of CooperAcción said.

5. Effects on fishing communities

Thousands of fishers were left without work as a consequence of the oil pollution caused by Repsol. Many had to change professions to earn an income. Those who stayed in the fishing industry continued to demand compensation. Before the disaster, more than 500 people within the Association of Artisanal Fishermen of Ancón were engaged in responsible fishing in that area on the coast of Peru.

Each affected fishing family has lost an average of 149,714 soles (about $41,000) per year since the spill, according to CooperAcción and Oxfam. Although Repsol claims to have compensated 98% of the affected people, the Ombudsman’s Office of Peru said many of these negotiations were carried out behind closed doors and under conditions imposed by the company, without guaranteeing fair treatment.

In 2024, more than 34,000 people affected by the Repsol oil spill filed a claim for compensation before a court in the Netherlands.

Regarding the social aspect of the spill, Repsol Peru said it had “complied with its commitment to compensate the people included on the Single Registry of Affected People, prepared by the Peruvian government.” The company said more than 10,500 people have received their compensation.

Banner image: Repsol’s 2022 oil spill contaminated two protected areas. Image by Max Cabello Orcasitas for Mongabay Latam.

This story was first published here on our Latam site on Jan. 17, 2025.

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