The amount of oil released into the Baltic Sea from the Būtingė crude terminal on Wednesday was larger than reported by Orlen Lietuva and some of it has reached Latvian territorial waters, the Environmental Protection Department (AAD) said on Thursday as cleanup efforts continued.
“The initial data indicate that there was 1.8 tons of oil on the surface of the water. It is likely that the amount of oil released into the environment during the accident was significantly higher, as some of the oil sank or evaporated,” it said.
Orlen Lietuva informed the authorities on Wednesday that around 300 litres of oil had spilled into the Baltic Sea at the Būtingė oil terminal’s buoy while a tanker was being loaded.
Specialists have determined that the oil slick is located southeast of the Būtingė terminal and is around nine kilometres long and two kilometres wide.
Aerial reconnaissance on Thursday morning also confirmed that the oil slick had reached Latvian territorial waters.
The AAD said that its specialists, aided by the department’s ship, had gone out to sea to collect pollution samples, but their efforts were being hindered by adverse weather conditions.
The department said that the cleanup efforts were being coordinated by the Lithuanian Navy’s Sea Rescue Coordination Centre and that over 25 cubic meters of pollutants had been collected since Wednesday.
The Lithuanian environmental protection authorities are exchanging information with their Latvian counterparts on the pollution incident, according to the press release.
In the wake of the incident, an unscheduled inspection of Orlen Lietuva has been launched to determine the exact amount of pollutants released into the sea and the environmental impact.
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