$100m penalty for Brazil oil spill

The fine was imposed for the Iguaca river oil spill

The Brazilian environmental agency has fined the country's state-run oil company, Petrobras, a record $100m, following one of the worst cases of pollution in decades.

It comes a month after four million litres of crude oil spilled from a broken pipeline into the Iguacu river in southern Brazil, contaminating ecological reserves.

This is not going to... compensate for the long-term damage to the environment

Greenpeace

The Iguacu spill - Brazil's largest in 25 years - happened when an underwater pipeline at a Petrobras refinery split, releasing four million litres (one million gallons) of crude oil.

Petrobras has already been fined tens of millions of dollars by the environmental authorities this year, for a series of recent spills.

The environmental agency said the fine was justified due to Petrobras' inability to prevent the repeated oil spills.

'Lenient'

But environmental activists have criticised the latest penalty as too lenient.

"Don't forget this is a company that turns out more than $60 million a day," Greenpeace President Roberto Kishinami said.

"This is not going to change Petrobras' relationship with society, or compensate for the long-term damage to the environment."

The oil-spills have had a long-term impact on wildlife

The most recent spill from a Petrobas pipeline occurred over the weekend, when the company said 1,000 litres of toxic fuel additive leaked near Rio de Janeiro.

Rio de Janeiro's state environmental secretariat says it will fine the oil company up to $560,000 for the latest spill, depending on the extent of the damage.

In January a Petrobras tanker leaked 1.3 million litres of oil close to Guanabara Bay.

For that spill, Brazilian authorities imposed a $28m fine on the state oil company.

Marine life has been severely affected by the successive slicks and environmentalists say it will take 10 years for the region to recover from the accidents.