MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - The fire in an oil depot in Libya’s capital Tripoli will have dire ecological consequences, the director of environmental programs at the Russian environmental nongovernmental organization Green Patrol, Roman Pukalov, said Monday.
“The fire will have dire consequences. Similar incident took place in the late 1990s when the Angarsk Refinery caught fire. The damage was estimated at 20 billion rubles and that is a very optimistic assessment, compared to world standards,” Pukalov told RIA Novosti.
A fire in the Tripoli oil depot, situated on the way to the Tripoi Airport, started on Saturday after a rocket hit a reservoir with 6 million liters of oil products. The total amount of oil and gas products in the oil depot is estimated at 90 million liters.
According to Pukalov, an area within 100 kilometers (62 miles) around the Tripoli oil depot will bear marks of air and soil pollution.
The oil reservoir incident is taking place amidst political turmoil in the country where there are still tensions after former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow in 2011.
A large number of armed groups continue to operate in the country. In some regions, these groups are better armed and equipped than the local police.
