Pacific Rubiales spills oil in Peru, El Comercio says

El Comercio has the story (my translation):

The Port of Zorritos Harbormaster activated its oil spill control and mitigation plan Thursday because of an oil leak from Platform CX-11, run by Pacific Rubiales SRL.

The Peruvian Navy explained that the plan was activated as soon as the harbormaster was told at 10:30 a.m. Thursday by artisanal fishermen in the area. The spill occurred Wednesday night.

Authorities say the workers controlled the leak and began ocean cleanup efforts. The slick didn’t make it to the shore of the heavily visited northern bathing area. Prosecutors and the Environmental Evaluation and Inspection Agency were also present in the area to evaluate the degree of ocean pollution.

Pictures here.

Pacific Rubiales’ news web page right now, 30 hours after the government was alerted to the spill by local fishermen:

Pacific Rubiales didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail seeking further information and comment. (UPDATE 3 am: It’s been 13 hours, can we just say they are ignoring me? I think so. Typical. The only company that has ever cut me off from listening to its conference call. Great media relations those guys have.)

I always wondered about Pacific Rubiales’ decision to buy BPZ, an oil company that had a series of operational problems including a pretty nasty oil spill. Wonder no more!

US alleges more South America oil corruption. This time in Colombia. (UPDATED)

Bloomberg has the story.

Two former co-chief executive officers of PetroTiger Ltd. paid bribes to an official atEcopetrol SA (ECOPETL), Colombia’s state-controlled oil company, for a $39.6 million oil-service contract, the U.S. charged.

The co-CEOs funneled payments through the wife of an official at Ecopetrol, Latin America’s second-largest oil company by market value, authorities said.

Plenty more where that came from.

And here, yours for no extra fee (since I already paid the fee and I believe in the freedom), the prosecution description of the cases against:
Gregory Weisman
Joseph Seligman
Knut Hammarskjold

As usual, innocent until proved guilty, and I’ll update the tale as more info arrives.

Now let’s see if the allegedly corrupt Colombian official takes any heat. Because if he took one bribe to approve a contract, it’s hard to believe it was the only time that happened. I bet he has some interesting e-mails laying about.

Update at midnight: W Radio cites our friends at Primera Página in this long story explaining what it thinks went down, in detail, in Spanish.