Several Mexican NGOs denounced on Tuesday an extensive oil spill in an area of the Gulf of Mexico where on July 7 there was an explosion on a gas production platform of the state-owned Pemex.
The organizations pointed out in a statement that according to satellite images the spill began around July 4, but that by July 12 the stain extended to 400 square kilometers, “more than double the area occupied by the city of Guadalajara.”
On July 7, the explosion and fire at the Pemex platform had left two workers dead and one missing.
“The complete opacity with which this spill has been handled is worrying given the possibility that it is a sample of other similar incidents that go by without being quantified and without record of care,” pointed out.
Pemex later acknowledged, in a statement, a leak in a pipeline in the fields called Ek Balam, although it said that “the volume of hydrocarbons that leaked was minimal.”
He added that the spill was immediately reported to the Security, Energy and Environment Agency (Asea) and to the Secretary of the Navy for repair.
“Most of the volume spilled was recovered immediately,” pointed.
He also denounced that the area of the spill disclosed by the NGOs “is an estimate in bad faith, which for it to be true, would have had to have spilled more than a million and a half barrels of oil.”
Pemex did not refer, however, to the satellite images that the organizations disseminated.
The NGOs, including Greenpeace, pointed out that in the last two years there has been a 152% increase in the frequency of Pemex accidents.
The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador considers this state company a bulwark of national sovereignty.
Several accidents have occurred in recent years at Pemex facilities, in some cases with fatalities.
On February 24, a dozen workers suffered burns in two fires that occurred in plants in Veracruz (southeast).
The infrastructure of the oil company has also been affected by fuel thieves.
The most serious case occurred in January 2019, when the fire and subsequent explosion of a looted pipeline left 137 dead in the town of Tlahuelilpan, in the central state of Hidalgo.