Chevron pays fine for oil spill in Brazil
SAO PAULO (AP) — Chevron Corp has paid a multimillion dollar fine for several "irregularities" in connection with last year's oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's National Petroleum Agency said.
The agency said in a Thursday statement that Chevron paid the 35.1 million real ($17.3 million) fine last week for 24 of 25 irregularities detected. The statement did not provide details on the irregularities.
Some 155,000 gallons of crude are thought to have been released in the November 2011 spill.
The agency said it granted Chevron a 30 percent discount because it paid the fine on time and did not challenge it.
Chevron confirmed it paid the fine and said it will "implement a number of process improvements developed from lessons learned in the incident. Chevron Brasil respects and complies with the laws of the countries in which it operates."
The company said in a Friday statement that "continuous monitoring of the incident area shows no discernible environmental impact to marine life or human health."
On Thursday, a federal court served Chevron and driller Transocean Ltd. with preliminary injunctions ordering them to suspend operations in Brazil until investigations are completed into the spill.
