Argentine boat spills oil in Peruvian jungle river

October 5, 2000
Web posted at: 11:17 AM EDT (1517 GMT)

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- A boat carrying some 7,000 barrels of crude oil for Pluspetrol, the Argentine-owned firm that is Peru's biggest oil group, spilled a "considerable" amount of oil into a river in the northern Peruvian jungle, the government said on Wednesday.

"It is not yet possible to determine the volume of oil spilled into the River Maranon since part of the 7,000 barrels being transported on the vessel had been transferred to another boat," the Energy and Mines Ministry said in a statement.

But it said that "the information we have suggests it is a considerable quantity of crude."

It said the spill occurred around 6 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Tuesday and may have been triggered by a collision. The Maranon is a tributary of the Amazon and the area is remote and largely unspoiled.

Pluspetrol said in a separate statement the company "has begun a contingency plan envisaged in such cases." It gave no details and did not say how much oil had been spilled.

Pluspetrol operates in Peru's Lote 8 oil field in the department of Loreto, some 810 km (506 miles) northeast of Lima, the Peruvian capital.

The ministry said there were no immediate reports of injuries in the incident.

Peru produces an average of 101,000 barrels of crude a day. Pluspetrol, Argentina's third-biggest gas producer, is also part of a consortium which won a development contract for the huge Camisea natural gas field in Peru's southern jungle.

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