Brazil and Chevron Juggling Oil Pollution vs Money
By B. McPherson The government of Brazil is fining Chevron about $28 million dollars for the oil spill in the Campos Basin. That’s a little under four days production. Chevron struck oil in their lease concession but the deep water drill site brought up oil at high pressure, enough to force oil up through the pipe and also to allow it to seek escape through weak rock formations. The spill wasn’t reported immediately. The accounts vary depending on who is relating them. The Chevron position is that they assumed the oil slick on the Atlantic was a result of operations by the state owned Petrobas corporation. The Brazilian government is saying that Petrobas was forced to report on Chevron and that Chevron underestimated the amount of oil that escaped to the surface. This current leak is far smaller than the BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico in 20ll which saw millions of barrels of oil foul water and beaches in the USA, but the Campos Basin is a massive formation which has several oi...