Brazil ‘days away’ from eco-disaster.

Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras, says a giant oil rig damaged in explosions on Thursday is in danger of sinking and provoking a major environmental disaster, possibly within three days. The floating platform, the largest in the world, has 1.5 million litres of petrol and oil on board, much of which could spill into the sea if the structure collapses.

…The incident is the latest in a series of other accidents. The oil workers’ union says that over the last three years 32 people hired or subcontracted by Petrobras have died in a total of 99 accidents.

…oil industry analysts say that Petrobras and other Latin American state-run oil companies tend to be short of funds, with governments often extracting large revenues to pay for social and other programmes. BBC