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Chevron faces fines of up to £53m over Brazil oil spill
US oil giant Chevron is facing fines that could total $83m (£53m) as a result of an oil spill off the coast of Brazil and could face a temporary ban on operating in the country.
The oil company has said it accepts full responsibility for the accident, which Brazilian regulators say has seen more than 416,000 litres of oil leak into the Atlantic in the past two weeks. Chevron said the leak had occurred after it had underestimated the pressure of underwater oil deposits while drilling but said it had now been plugged.
Brazil's Ministry of Environment announced on Monday that it would hit Chevron with a fine of 50 million Brazilian reais ($27.7m).
Haroldo Lima, director-general of the country's oil regulator ANP, announced that two further two further fines of the same amount could be imposed on Chevron for allegedly failing to provide full information on the accident and not having the necessary equipment to deal with it.
Speaking earlier Carlos Minc, Rio de Janeiro's state's environment secretary, said: "We believe the accident could've been avoided. There was an environmental crime. They hid information and their emergency team took almost 10 days to start acting."
Mr Lima said that the possibility of Chevron being banned from operating in Brazil for a time would be discussed at ANP's next meeting.
Chevron rejected accusations they did not notify local authorities quickly enough or properly manage clean-up operations.