The Loire polluted over 500m2 after an oil leak in the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges

A “crude oil leak” since the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges polluted “an area of ​​500 m²» of the Loire. “The TotalEnergies refinery in Donges detected [samedi] evening a crude oil leak at the level of an elbow of a line 30 cm in diameter”announced the Loire-Atlantique prefecture in a press release published on Sunday. She says she mobilized “all state services (…) immediately”.

“The leak materialized as a 2 cm breach on a weld bead”which created “a trickle of flow having led to an iridescence of a surface of approximately 500m² in the Loire »specified the prefecture. “This area could be partly contained by a double containment system via floating booms despite climatic conditions which make it difficult to encircle this iridescent zone”she reported.

“No trace of hydrocarbon” on the banks

The incident was detected at 10:50 p.m. on Saturday, TotalEnergies said in a press release on Sunday. “The flow of crude oil in the Loire” was stopped “from 1:40 a.m.” in the night and “the system was completed this (Sunday) morning at 8:50 a.m.”added the company. According to the prefecture, it is “since 3:45 a.m.” Sunday that “no more flow of crude oil flows into the Loire” et “interventions” were launched “to permanently seal the leak”. “The quantity of product escaped in the Loire is less than 15 m³»according to 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 claimed. “The iridescent waters should partly disperse naturally and be transferred, by the action of the wind, to the banks”had previously indicated 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. 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), according to the website of TotalEnergies. The Donges 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), according to the same source.