Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras plans to appeal a February state court ruling that it pay fishermen indemnities totaling R$1.1 billion (US$520 million) in the wake of a major January 2000 oil spill, calling the decision “patently unfair.” The decision concerned a spill in which a pipeline linking a Petrobras refinery just outside Rio de Janeiro to an island storage terminal ruptured near the point where it enters Rio’s storied Guanabara Bay. The 340,000 gallons (1.3 million liters) of released refinery oil caused extensive fish kills and polluted mangroves that are crucial to the local marine food chain. (See “Oil spill triggers regulatory action in Brazil”—EcoAméricas, Feb. 2000). In its February ruling, a Rio de Janeiro state court based the indemnity amount... [Log in to read more]