Environmental organizations denounced that Mexico’s Safety, Energy and Environment Agency (ASEA) has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to address the causes of these incidents.
Environmental civil society organizations detected a new crude oil spill in the vicinity of the Akal-B platform in the Campeche Sound, which caught fire and exploded on April 6.
The signatory organizations indicated that they have satellite images in which they have been able to verify that the crude oil spill began around March 22 of this year (15 days before the Akal-B platform), and it remains active, accumulating 20 days of uninterrupted leak.
“The crude oil spill is estimated to cover an area of approximately 390 km2, a size similar to that of the spill reported by several of the signatory organizations in July of last year,” they indicated.
“Given this terrible situation, we urge transparent information, attention, mitigation and non-repetition measures; and more concern about Pemex and the safety of its workers, the safety of the communities that coexist with its infrastructure, the future of the oil company and its undeniable responsibility in the face of the world climate crisis,” environmentalists stressed.
They denounced that the Safety, Energy and Environment Agency (ASEA) has repeatedly demonstrated its incompetence and inability to address the causes of these incidents and prevent these disasters, “despite being directly responsible for regulating and sanctioning Pemex.”
It was pointed out that the frequency of accidents by Pemex has increased by 152% in the last two years, and the budget allocated to the maintenance of facilities has decreased by 49%, demonstrating that Pemex has made bad administrative decisions prioritizing the accelerated extraction of fossil fuels instead of investing in security and maintenance of its existing infrastructure.
“The consequences are visible in the irreparable human losses of workers and the effects on the health of local communities and ecosystems impacted by fossil disasters,” they stated.
So far, the explosion of the Akal-B platform has officially caused the death of two workers from the COTER company, and nine more injured.
“The two workers join the list of more than 360 people who have died in Pemex accidents since 2009,” they stated.
TYT Newsroom