Third Spill From Venezuelan Refinery Contaminates Golfo Triste
Venezuela's petroleum sector has become notorious for oil spills, especially over the last ten years of economic decline. The latest release from an aging refinery appears to have contaminated a large swathe of Venezuela's coastal waters and fouled beaches near a well-known nature reserve.
Satellite imaging appears to show that the slick covers about 90 square miles of the Golfe Triste, an embayment about 80 nautical miles to the west of Caracas. It extends near the boundaries of Parque Nacional Morrocoy, a well-known stretch of pristine mangrove shoreline.
The origin appears to be PDVSA's El Palito refinery, on the southern edge of the bay. The release was first reported in the English-speaking press by Reuters, which drew on an analysis by biologist Eduardo Klein and secured confirmation of the spill from multiple sources.
ALERTA:
— Einstein Millan Arcia (@EinsteinMillan) August 16, 2024
Denuncian crimen ambiental CAUSADO POR LAS OPERACIONES DE #PDVSA en #Falcón, playa #BocadeAroca, cerca del parque Morrocoy
pic.twitter.com/Xp9sR5P2UW
#16Ago el #derramepetrolero de #PDVSA se concentra frente a #BocadeAroa, rodeando los cayos Chico y Medio. Al menos 5km de playa y 450km² de afectación. No pareciera haber llegado a #Morrocoy pic.twitter.com/rcbCQBqWum
— diodon histrix (@diodon321) August 18, 2024
El Palito was built in the 1950s and has a capacity of about 150,000 barrels a day. According to the GlobalData Oil & Gas Intelligence Center, it had 14 shutdown incidents from 2017-22, the overwhelming majority of which were unplanned. It was shut down for nearly a year in 2022-23 for repairs and improvements, with assistance from the Iranian National Company of Petroleum Refining and Distribution (NIORDC). Iran - which is largely immune to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela - has supplied PDVSA with parts and services for the petroleum and refining sector since 2020. According to Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji, El Palito receives and refines about 100,000 barrels per day of imported Iranian crude (along with Venezuelan heavy oil).
El Palito's last major spill was in December 2023, when heavy rains caused waste lagoons to overflow and send sludge flowing into the ocean. The previous spill, in July 2020, contaminated Parque Nacional Morrocoy with tarry crude oil. The damage from that event could take 50 years or longer to fade away, biologist Julia Alvarez told reporters at the time.
Copernicus / Sentinel-1
Top image: Hugo Londono / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0