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The minister reported the incident on Facebook.
“We have just received a report that the hose at the Būtingė terminal has broken and petroleum products have been spilled. The amounts are still unclear. The Department of Environmental Protection and the Lithuanian Armed Forces are responding.
More information coming soon, “he said.
A representative from the Department of Environmental Protection reported that the pollutants were moving offshore to Latvia.
“A small amount of oil was spilled, we received that information from the guard at the Būtingė terminal.” Currently, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center coordinates the provision of assistance, “Eugenijus Valikovas, head of the Coordination Center, told BNS of Maritime Rescue.
Arūnas Malinovskis, head of the Communications Division of the Department of Environmental Protection, says that the area of the spilled pollutants is provisionally about 1 square kilometer. Due to the currents and the wind, they do not move towards the coast, but towards the open sea, towards Latvia. According to him, a helicopter should be soaring above them at this time.
“The Maritime Rescue Coordination Center is taking over all the coordination work, currently they should lift a helicopter, which will monitor the situation and decide the measures to eliminate the incident,” Malinovsky told BNS.
“Environmental inspectors have started an investigation and we will calculate the damage to the environment,” he added.
According to E.Valikovas, a search and rescue ship “Šakiai” was dispatched to collect pollutants. A Lithuanian Air Force helicopter also flew to the scene of the incident; it will specify the size of the contaminating spot.
According to A. Malinowski, what exactly was spilled into the sea will still be investigated.
“We often say they are petroleum products because, until identified, the Environmental Protection Agency laboratory also went to the site to take samples and determine which contaminants that leaked were tentatively petroleum products,” he said.
The Būtingė oil terminal is owned by Orlen Lietuva, managed by the Polish company Orlen. Since mid-2006, Orlen Lietuva has been importing oil only for its own needs through this terminal.
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