Rayong fishery groups threaten blockade over oil spill compensation
Fishery groups in Rayong province have angrily rejected a compensation offer made by Star Petroleum Refining Plc (SPRC) for damage caused by its oil spill.
SPRC tabled the offer at a meeting with 48 fishery groups at Rayong Beach Resort Hotel in Muang district on Friday, where 50 police officers were deployed.
The fishery groups have demanded SPRC pay compensation of Bt1,000 per day for a year, or 360,000 baht, for every affected fisherman. However, SPRC’s head of compensation Wichai Chunhasomboon said the company would only offer one-time payments of Bt30,000 per person.
The fishery groups, led by head of Rayong Fishery Office Seri Reunlar, rejected the offer and demanded talks with SPRC’s executive directors on Sunday (February 27).
The groups warned that if negotiations were not successful, they would blockade Rayong’s Pradu Bay with 2,000 fishing boats and protest during Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha’s visit to Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate on Monday.
Thousands of litres of oil gushed from an undersea pipeline at SPRC’s single point mooring (SPM) some 20 kilometres southeast of Rayong’s Map Ta Phut port on January 25. The company was also behind another oil spill on February 10 as it moved the pipeline to investigate the leak. The second spill caused about 5,000 litres of oil that was still in the pipe to gush into the sea.
