An oil slick spotted in the Baltic Sea last week originated at Lithuania's crude terminal in Butinge, experts said.
A thorough check of the underwater part of the terminal revealed that the crude had seeped out of a pipeline manifold. Maintenance and inspection of full system was completed at 4 a.m. on Feb. 4, said Giedrius Karsokas, head of communications department at Mazeikiu Nafta. The inspectors' group included the representatives of Smit Octo, the contractor for the marine part of the terminal, FMC Sofec, the designer of the buoy, and Dunlop, a hose-producer.
The terminal had already launched preparations for the resumption of handling, Karsokas said.
Environmental experts had discovered the oil slick, which was about 1 kilometer long and 200 meters wide, on Jan. 31. The level of sea water pollution had exceeded the prescribed ceiling by more than twice.
Latvia was a critic of the Butinge project, saying these types of spills would cause great harm to the region's fragile marine-eco system.
BNS
