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Oil spill off Novorossiysk: 80 square kilometers instead of 200 square meters
Photo:
dpa
The difference is huge: after an accident with a tanker in the Black Sea, the polluting company reported a contaminated area of 200 square meters.
In fact, the level of pollution is much wider.
At 80 square kilometers, the oil spill is several hundred thousand times larger than the polluter said, said the Russian Academy of Sciences after evaluating satellite images.
"On August 8, the oil spill stretched from the coast to the open sea over a length of 19 kilometers." The amount of oil that leaked near the city of Novorossiysk was previously unknown.
Russia launches investigation
On Saturday there was an accident while pumping oil into the Greek tanker "Minerva Symphony" at the Yuzhno-Ozerejewka sea terminal six kilometers off the Russian coast.
According to the pipeline operator, around twelve cubic meters of the raw material entered the sea.
The oil spill was quickly contained and posed no danger to people or wildlife, it said after the accident.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which also owns the terminal, has so far not commented on the satellite images.
However, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko has instructed the state environmental agency to assess the extent and impact of the pollution.
apr / dpa / Reuters
