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St. Peter; Cabo Manglares, Colombia

Cabo Manglares, Colombia | 1976-Feb-05

Initial Notification: The tank vessel St. Peter departed Tumaco, Colombia on February 4, 1976 with 279,000 barrels of Orito crude. On the evening of February 4, a fire broke out in the engine room and the crew abandoned ship after unsuccessful attempts to extinguish the fire. There were subsequent explosions on board the St. Peter and the fire continued to burn until February 5 or February 6, when the vessel sank in over 3,000 feet of water approximately 18 miles off Cabo Manglares, Colombia. An Ecuadorian patrol boat returning to the site on February 6, found only an oil slick approximately one square mile in area. The sunken vessel released an initial burst of oil and then continued to slowly leak oil for some time. The vessel was known to be leaking oil nine months after the sinking. The area affected by the spill covered a distance of over 200 miles, from Buenaventura, Colombia in the north to Punta Galera, Ecuador in the south. The predominant shorelines in the area were sandy beaches, rocky shores, and estuarine areas with mangroves. The heaviest oiling occurred in the area of Tumaco, Colombia and portions of the shoreline to the south, near the border of Ecuador. Keyword: Fire, explosion, sinking..

Incident Details
Products of concern:Orito Crude Oil
Latitude (approximate): 1° 30.00′ North
Longitude (approximate): 79° 30.00′ West