Sun. Feb 9th, 2025

After more than 10 years of legal litigation, the company responsible for the largest oil spill in Israel's history will pay a symbolic fine

January 17, 2025
Israeli oil spill in the Evrona nature reserve in 2014. Photo: Noam Weiss, BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.Israeli oil spill in the Evrona nature reserve in 2014. Photo: Noam Weiss, BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

On 3 December 2014, during maintenance work near Be'er Ora, north of Eilat, around 5 million litres of crude oil spilled from a pipeline belonging to the Europe Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC). 

This spill contaminated a large part of the land in the Evrona Nature Reserve, leaving oil-soaked areas that have not been recovered to this day.

The Ashkelon court approved a controversial settlement that imposes a fine of just NIS 1,5 million on the company, which many consider an insufficient payment considering this is the largest oil spill on record in Israel. 

Although initial operations managed to reduce some of the environmental damage, the Ministry of Environmental Protection estimated in 2018 that losses reached NIS 281 million.

Environmental organization Adam Teva V'Din has harshly criticized Judge Zohar Dolev Lehmann's decision, calling it “insufficient for the magnitude of the damage caused to the environment, nature and public health.”

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