On 28 December of last year, in the waters of Būtingė Oil Terminal a section of floating hose string got detached. At that time weather conditions were bad thus no tanker loading operations were conducted. As estimated by environmental authorities, during this incident 480 liters of crude oil were released to the Baltic Sea via the safety coupling. Over 2 tons of crude oil remained in the detached section of hose string which drifted away and was lost.
In cooperation with Environmental Protection Department under the Ministry of Environment, the Navy, and Lithuanian Coast Guard forces intensive search for the detached hose string was launched, including combing of the coastal area, scanning of the seabed and surveillance of the Baltic Sea in the territory of Lithuania from air. This incident was reported to all countries bordering the Baltic Sea.
Ad hoc committee assigned by the General Director of ORLEN Lietuva investigated the incident. Incident was also investigated by Environmental Protection Department under the Ministry of Environment, pre-trial investigation was initiated by Klaipeda Regional Prosecutor's Office.
For entire year ORLEN Lietuva worked in close cooperation with responsible environmental and law enforcement authorities providing all available information related to the incident. ORLEN Lietuva, at its good will and before prescribed deadline, compensated damage to environment (151’875.45 EUR) which was calculated by the authorities taking into account both the quantity of crude oil released to the Baltic Sea during detachment of the hose string and the quantity which remained in the detached section of string.
In August of this year, the Company was notified that the detached section was found in Sweden, in the east coast of Gotland. Further, the string with crude oil in it was promptly transported to Lithuania where independent laboratory, in participation by the representatives from Environmental Protection Department, has determined the quantity of crude oil which was actually present in the detached section of hose string. After this investigation it was confirmed the safeguards of the string have helped to prevent even bigger pollution of the Baltic Sea.
After internal investigation, ad hoc committee of ORLEN Lietuva defined preventive actions which, in order to prevent such events in the future and to improve the safety of operation even more, were immediately implemented in Būtingė Oil Terminal. As no characteristics of crime were identified, in November of this year Klaipeda Regional Prosecutor's Office terminated the pre-trial investigation. Fine for ORLEN Lietuva was recalculated as well and reduced by EUR 100 thousand.
After a year since this incident in Būtingė Oil Terminal we may confirm that close cooperation between ORLEN Lietuva and environmental authorities has helped to respond to this incident in a prompt and coordinated manner allowing to prevent its escalation. Active cooperation between all related parties continues, including continuous exchange of information and experience between ORLEN Lietuva and Environmental Protection Department, joint trainings and drills to prevent reoccurrence of such events in the future. Environmental protection is our common goal.