Chevron fines $25M for November oil spill in Santos Basin

Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, ANP, said it will fine Chevron for its November oil spill below the maximum allowable fine of R$50 million, or roughly $25 million. Given that it is not at the maximum, Chevron is actually being fined less than many people had expected at the outset of the November oil spill.
ANP said on Monday that they will deliver the exact fine to Chevron later this week for 25 infractions caused in the oil spill in the so-called Frade Field in the Santos Basin. Between 2,400 and 3,000 barrels of oil seeped into the Atlantic Ocean from a crack in the ocean floor during a drilling miscalculation. No wildlife was believed to have been harmed and no oil washed up on shore, though the spill sparked outrage and lawsuits galore in Rio de Janeiro which basically put the Chevron president, George Buck, under house arrest. Buck was not allowed to leave the country during the investigation. Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Ibama, had already fined Chevron R$60 million in November.
Fines levied on Total have not been paid as the legal procedure continues.
Brazil has become a hot bed of oil companies over the last five years since Petrobras, the nation’s oil company, discovered oil in two basins at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, over 70 miles off shore. Much of it is buried beneath salt and rock and costly to get to, but that has not stopped every major oil company from prospecting and drilling in the Santos and Campos basins for Brazilian crude.