About 82,000 liters of oil spilled during the loading of oil from the Serbian oil refinery in Pančevo onto a barge of the company “Naftahem“ from Novi Sad on April 21 at around 7:00 a.m., the General Prosecutor's Office in Pančevo announced, the regional television channel En1 reported. The oil fell into the protective barrier around the barge and potentially into the Danube River, BTA reports.
The prosecutor on duty immediately went to the scene after receiving the report and conducted an inspection of the scene with officers of the Panchevo police department in the presence of regional environmental inspectors, republican shipping safety inspectors and a republican inspector for the transport of dangerous goods, the Pancevo prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The investigation found that on April 20, a barge owned by the company “Naftahem“ from Novi Sad, moored at pier number three of the Pančevo oil refinery and on April 21, between 7:02 and 7:35 am, while loading oil into the barge, approximately 82,000 liters spilled into the protective barrier around the barge and potentially into the Danube.
The Institute of Public Health has taken water samples near the barge, as well as in other sections of the Danube River, to determine the level of pollution, while the Pančevo Public Health Service, in cooperation with the Pančevo Police Department and the competent inspectorates, will take further measures and actions related to the above-mentioned event and will establish the cause of the environmental accident.