Liability, awards and settlements

11.6, civil penalties

US: a Valero Energy Corporation Texas unit will pay $1.65mn in civil penalties and finance a $300,000 environmental project in a settlement over an oil spill, the US Justice Department said. The spill on June 1, 2006, sent 3,400 barrels of oil into the Corpus Christi Ship Channel, the department said. The oil spilled from a containment berm at Valero’s Corpus Christi Refinery - West Plant. The department said Valero had since removed the berm and an associated storage tank. Under terms of the settlement with the Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, Valero will design and build a boat ramp to help emergency-response efforts in the area of the oil spill.