A Pemex pipeline repair ship was grounded for more than eight days at the site of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

During the first half of January, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Mexican oil company, repaired a pipeline containing crude oil that was thought to contain more than 19 square kilometers (50 km2), which runs from one of the oil platforms in the Cantarell field to the Dos Bocas facilities. The location of the spill is one of the places where the Mexican government has located the origin of the oil spill that has affected more than 600 kilometers of coastline. Public information obtained by EL PAÍS reveals that the vessel Árbol Grande, dedicated to the maintenance of oil facilities, was detained from February 9 to the 16 of that month with an active pump carrying Maya raw. This contradicts the kind of law that has been maintained since the beginning of the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico by the authorities, who denied that there was a leak or explosion at the Pemex facilities. EL PAÍS asked the oil company what happened to the pipeline in those days, but had not received an answer by press time.

A satellite image taken on February 15 shows a ship, surrounded by small boats, on the oil spill in the sea, known as the possibility of an oil spill by Cerulean, a platform operated by the environmental organization SkyTruth that uses satellite images and machine learning to detect oil spills. The Global Fishing Watch platform, which monitors ocean activity around the world, revealed that between February 7 and February 17, 15 vessels were moving within a kilometer of the area. But only one ship stayed there for almost 200 hours, more than eight days: Árbol Grande.

Árbol Grande is a vessel that serves Diavaz, a company founded in 1973 that specializes in the inspection, maintenance and repair of oil facilities and equipment on the coast of Tamaulipas and the Bay of Campeche. According to the contract platform of Pemex Constructora Subacuática, Diavaz has been a contractor for the state oil company since at least 2018, and in May 2025, the company won a public procurement for about 11 billion pesos called “Management of the integrity and reliability of the hydrocarbon transportation system by sea pipelines.” They had previously held similar contracts, and Pemex executives boasted at public events about the speed with which Árbol Grande carried out “the work of replacing damaged parts of submarine pipelines; due to its roof space and stability, despite swelling and strong winds,” in the Bay of Campeche submarine pipeline network.

Beneath the area where the Árbol Grande pipeline repair vessel was held for about 200 hours, there is an oil pump shown on the map of the National Hydrocarbons Commission as Old AK C, which goes from the AKAL-C platform to the Dos Bocas offshore facility. The 161-kilometer-long pipeline, which carries Maya crude oil—a type of oil that is clearer and more difficult to refine than lighter oil—spill nearly a year ago, in May 2025.

All these facts contradict the official version observed by the federal and state authorities since the first warnings arrived about a month ago that many beaches in Veracruz and Tabasco had problems due to the oil spill. Pemex said in early March that the bleeding did not originate at its facilities, a claim supported by Rocío Nahle, the governor of Veracruz, who confirmed that the problem was “a private vessel belonging to the private oil company Pemex.”

Since this oil was discovered, it has spread over 600 kilometers along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from Tabasco through Veracruz to the northern border of Tamaulipas. Coastal communities that depend on fishing and tourism have reported damage to the coastal and marine environment, with dead turtles, fish and dolphins washed ashore.

The latest statement issued by the multi-agency group formed to deal with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill says that “hydrocarbon pollution along the Gulf of Mexico remains under control, with clean beaches reported as a result of concerted efforts to respond, contain and clean up.” The team is made up of the Mexican Navy, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Energy, the Agency for Security, Energy and Environment, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and the Office of the Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA).

In a press conference held last Thursday by this newly created group, the ship and two natural sites were identified as the causes of the environmental crisis. “Pemex reports that a vessel illegally dumped oil in the vicinity of the Coatzacoalcos vessel,” said Raymundo Morales Ángeles, Secretary of the Navy. The second source of the spill, according to the Secretary, is the natural water of crude oil and methane gas that rises from the ground to the surface-which is five kilometers from the port of Coatzacoalcos Veracruz, which is now inactive, and located in the area of ​​Cantarell in the state of Campeche. In fact, in a press conference, it was said that the oil spill in the Pemex pipeline was the result of this natural seep.

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