Heritage Petroleum cleans oil spill near Vessigny

AN OPEN VALVE on a Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd crude oil tank led to approximately 318 liters of oil spilling into nearby watercourses, a release to the media said.

Heritage said they are now in the process of cleaning the watercourse.

The release said it was alerted to the leak by a video circulating on social media, showing oil in a watercourse near its AV106 well site in Vessigny, La Brea.

Heritage said it took immediate action to determine the source of the leak which was traced to a crude oil tank at the well site.

“Cleaning up the area is proceeding in accordance with established industry standards and protocols. Continuous assessment and monitoring of the site is also ongoing. All regulatory bodies were notified of the incident,” Heritage said.

Heritage added that it is using booms – floating physical barriers which contain oil in watercourses during spills – in strategic locations.

The release said this was not the first time that such an incident happened.

“The previous incident was the result of the deliberate tampering of a valve on the tank. Subsequently, Heritage implemented an engineered solution with a view to curtailing similar incidents.”

Heritage said tampering with its equipment could lead to serious injury of people and damage to the environment.