Greek firm suspected of spilling oil in Brazil

Brazil’s Federal Police launched Operação Mácula (“operation blemish”) on Friday (Nov. 1), to probe into a Greek vessel suspected of having spilled the oil that reached over 250 beaches in the Brazilian Northeast. The ship is said to have docked in Venezuela on July 15, where it stayed for three days before proceeding to Singapore via South Africa.

“As it currently stands, this Greek ship is linked to a company of the same nationality, but there are still no data on the ownership of the oil carried, which means investigations must continue,” the police declared.

Finds

The inquiries started in September and were aided by the Brazilian Navy, the Federal Prosecution Service, the Brazilian Environment Institute, the National Oil Agency, the Federal University of Bahia, the University of Brasília, ad the State University of Ceará, in addition to a private company in the field of geointelligence.

The efforts led to the location of the first oil slick, 700 km off the Brazilian coast, in international waters. Its extension is yet to be gauged. The finds enabled investigators to estimate the spill must have occurred on July 28 and 29. The authorities were able to locate “the only oil tanker to have navigated in the suspected area” on that date.

The Federal Police requested probes in other countries, in order to find more information about the suspected vessel, its crew, and the company.

The police also reported it has conducted “a number of examinations on the slick collected in all Brazilian states affected, with similarities having been found in all samples.”