Oil Spill in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca

On Sunday Oct. 23, Director of Fisheries of Salina Cruz, José Alfredo Agustín Jiménez, reported traces of oil over the Playa Brasil, Punta Conejo and Playa Azul beaches. The sites were closed to tourism and fishing activities. The Director reported to El Universal that at least 10km of beach are contaminated and that the spill reaches Huatulco. Civil Protection, the Ecology Department and the Municipality are evaluating the area. So far PEMEX has not addressed the claims.

Last week, 14 turtles were found dead on the beaches of Salina Cruz. The Ecology Department opened an investigation due to the advanced level of decomposition. Since no trace of human intervention was found, Jiménez did not attribute it to oil traces found the past Oct. 19. He explained, before this Sunday's spill, that natural factors could have created this phenomenon such as changes in the sea temperature disorienting the turtles.

By April 2022, there were three reports of oil spills in Salina Cruz, responsibility of the PEMEX “Antonio Dovalí Jaime” refinery. Several incidents have raised concerns over PEMEX’s practices. According to Juan Andrés Escobar Soto, Chemical Researcher, UNAM, the government has not provided adequate maintenance to oil pipelines and in some states like Hidalgo, the infrastructure has not had maintenance for 40 years. Escobar explains that some materials used for pipelines are easily degraded by components found in oil and tend to last for up to 20 years.

The NOC made a commitment to protect the environment in its 2019 business plan. However, the critical underfunding of midstream infrastructure has led to a lack of maintenance for pipelines which has caused several spills and leaking problems for the oil company. As reported by MBN, experts believe that the tightening of PEMEX's purse strings to fulfill its debt obligations and fund the expansion of the refining system has hampered its ability to repair storage facilities and pipelines in dire need of maintenance.