Pemex acknowledged on April 16 that a large oil slick in the southern Gulf of Mexico was caused by an undersea-pipeline leak near its Abkatún oil-production platform, approximately 100 kilometers north of the Campeche state coastline.
For weeks, Mexican state oil giant Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) denied causing an oil slick that in March covered an estimated 250 square kilometers (97 sq. miles) of the southern Gulf of Mexico. The spill-stained beaches along 625 miles (1,000 kms) of Mexican coastline sickened and killed wildlife and threatened the rich ecosystem of a 400-mile (650-km) string of stony and coral reefs known as the Southwest Gulf of Mexico Reef Corridor. Pemex initially blamed an unidentified commercial tanker and natural seepage in the seabed—a claim backed by government officials. But satellite and shipping data told a different story. Sleuthing in March by a Mexican green group named CartoCrítica revealed Pemex had stationed an oil-pipeline-repair team near the origin of the spill in February. The company, it seemed, knew early on that the true cause of the accident was a leak in the undersea pipeline... [Log in to read more]
