Chevron faces USD 25 mn fine for Brazil oil spill

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IANS | 20 Jul, 2012
Brazil's National Petroleum Agency said Thursday that Chevron Corp. will be fined nearly 50 million reais (USD 24.7 million) for an oil leak at an offshore field last November.

The US oil major was found to have committed 25 infractions, each of them subject to a fine of up to 2 million reais, agency officials said at a press conference, while noting that Chevron's prior good record in Brazil will be taken into account in determining the precise amount of the penalty.

The agency, known by the Portuguese initials ANP, says 3,700 barrels of crude have leaked from the Frade field, located 120 km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state.

"The accident could have been avoided if Chevron had complied with the (Brazilian) norm and its own manual," ANP director Magda Chambriard said.

The San Ramon, California-based multinational is the operator of the field with a 51.74 percent stake, while Brazilian state-controlled oil giant Petrobras and Japan's Frade Japao Petroleo have 30 percent and 18.26 percent interests, respectively.

Frade lies in the Campos basin, where nearly 90 percent of Brazil's oil and gas is extracted.