A crude oil leak was detected in the Loire by the company on the night of Saturday November 23 to Sunday November 24, polluting “an area of 500 m²”. Total ensures that pollution is now contained using absorbent bags placed in the water.
New illustration of the environmental and health risks linked to hydrocarbons. A crude oil leak into the Loire River was detected at the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges (Loire-Atlantique), during the night from Saturday to Sunday. According to the prefecture, the incident materialized by “a 2 cm gap on a weld bead” creating a “flow net in the Loire and a phenomenon of iridescence with a surface area of approximately 500 m² in the river”.
A leak now contained “in part” thanks to a “double containment system via floating booms despite climatic (wind, swell) and natural (ebb tide) conditions which make it difficult to encircle this iridescent zone,” reassures the same source. “The flow of crude oil in the Loire” was stopped “from 1:40 a.m. at night” et “the device was completed this Sunday morning at 8:50 a.m.”, TotalEnergies, for its part, said in a press release.
Work in progress “to permanently seal the leak”
According to the prefecture, it is “since 3:45 a.m.” Sunday that “no more flow of crude oil flows into the Loire”. “Interventions” were also launched “to permanently seal the leak”. “The quantity of product released in the Loire is less than 15 m3”also tries to reassure TotalEnergies. Analyzes carried out on the banks of the Loire “did not reveal any trace of hydrocarbon” et “no anomaly in the air either” was not recorded, the company continues. “The iridescent waters should partly disperse naturally and be transferred, by the action of the wind, to the banks”had previously communicated the prefecture, ensuring that it was continuing to assess the environmental impact of this leak.
In December 2022, a leak from this refinery, classified Seveso high threshold, caused the flow of 700,000 liters of gasoline. At the end of February 2024, the refinery was then completely shut down “in order to carry out necessary repairs following corrosion on one unit and blockage on a second”argued the management of the refinery.
The Donges platform, which occupies an area of nearly 350 hectares and where 650 employees work, is the group's second refinery in France, after that of Normandy, in Gonfreville-l'Orcher (Seine-Maritime), specifies the website of TotalEnergies. The site has a processing capacity of 11 million tonnes of crude oil per year, for a storage capacity of 2.2 million m³ (crude oil and finished products).
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