Pipeline Spills Crude Into French Nature Reserve

Four thousand cubic meters (140,000 cu ft) of crude oil has spewed into a nature reserve on the edge of France's Camargue national park after an underground pipe burst, officials said on Friday.

The spill spread over 2 hectares (5 acres) of the Coussouls de Crau reserve near the town of Saint-Martin-de-Crau, which was created in 2001 and is home to thousands of birds.

The site lies at the entrance to the Camargue park, a vast expanse of plains and marshland, famous for its wild horses and bulls, that boards the Mediterranean Sea.

The fractured pipeline was operated by the Societe du Pipeline Sud-Europeen (SPSE), which supplies refineries and a petrochemical plant in France, Switzerland and Germany. SPSE lists shareholders including France's Total, U.S. firm ExxonMobil and Britain's BP.

Built in 1971, the broken pipe was a meter wide and buried some 80 cm (31.5 inches) under the ground.

A clean-up operation was already underway and officials said all the crude would be removed alone with the tainted earth.

SOURCE : REUTERS