Peru’s consumer protection agency is suing Spanish oil firm Repsol over a huge oil spill which blackened beaches off the coast of Lima in January.
The spill, which Peru called the worst ecological disaster around Lima in recent memory, leaked more than 10,000 barrels into the Pacific Ocean.
The civil lawsuit seeks $3bn (£2.54bn) for environmental damage and $1.5bn (£1.27bn) for damages to locals.
Repsol has denied responsibility.
The company initially said the spill was caused by “sudden and extraordinary anomalous waves produced by the volcanic eruption in Tonga”. However, it later blamed the oil tanker.
On Tuesday, a Peruvian judge admitted the $4.5bn lawsuit by Indecopi against Repsol, meaning the case will go to court.
An underwater oil pipeline owned by the company caused a spill on 15 January. It happened when an Italian-flagged tanker, Mare Doricum, was unloading at Repsol’s La Pampilla refinery.
Repsol has denied responsibility for the spill and said that it sees the claim as “baseless, inadmissible, and inconsistent”.
“We have not yet been notified of the court’s acceptance of the complaint, and we do not know the details of the acceptance,” a spokesperson for the firm told the BBC.
“We reiterate that the causes are still under investigation, but that the preliminary findings indicate that it was caused by an uncontrolled movement by the Mare Doricum vessel while it was unloading crude at the terminal.”
“Even so, Repsol has used all means at its disposal to contain, clean, and remediate the coastline, assist the communities in the area, and rescue and attend to the fauna affected by the oil spill,” the spokesperson added.
Earlier this year, President Pedro Castillo described the spill as “one of the biggest ecocides ever on our coasts and seas”.
Hundreds of fishermen and hospitality workers also lost income due to the disaster, according to the Peruvian environment ministry.
Local fisherman staged protests because they were unable to go out to sea and work because of the spill.
Indecopi has alleged that the ecological damage is continuing to affect fishermen and the environment. -BBC
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