LIMA: Two recent oil pipeline spills in Peru’s part of the Amazon hit areas rich in wildlife and it will take them a year to recover, the government said Monday.
The spills released a total of 2,000 barrels of petroleum, Energy and Mining Minister Rosa Maria Ortiz said.
She and other government officials flew over one of the areas blackened by a spill from a pipeline run by state-owned PetroPeru.
The oil has been contained and is not spreading further, and tainted soil is being removed, Ortiz said.
The first spill on January 25 polluted cacao plantations and waterways that feed into the Chiriaco River. The latest spill was on February 3, the government said.
Over the weekend Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal said PetroPeru will be sanctioned and that it will take a year for the flora and fauna in the affected areas to get back to normal.
