Scientists say Novorossiysk oil spill at 80 sq km, not 200 sq m

MOSCOW, Aug 11 (PRIME) -- The area of an oil products spill near the city of Novorossiysk turned out to be 80 square kilometers, not 200 square meters like Caspian Pipeline Consortium said previously, the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement on Wednesday citing data of satellite images.

“The spill is significantly bigger than announced previously, as the area of oil contamination amounted to almost 80 square kilometers at the moment of radar photography. The oil spill stretched for 19 kilometers into the open sea from the shore,” the statement read.

The photography was done by the Sentinel-1 satellite on August 8. Scientists continue analysis of satellite and meteorological data, but more recent satellite images are yet to be disclosed.

The spill happened on August 7 during pumping of oil to the Greek oil tanker Minerva Symphony by the first extended loading unit of Caspian Pipeline Consortium. The company said then that only 12 cubic meters of oil were spilled, and that the spill area is only 200 square meters.

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