Oil spill at sea: who will pay for Peru’s worst environmental disaster?

As the state, the refinery and tanker owners play the blame game, damage to the region's ecosystems continues to spread

More than a month after Peru's worst ever environmental disaster on its coastline there are few signs of reckoning for Repsol, the Spanish energy company that manages the refinery where more than 10,000 barrels of crude oil spewed into the Pacific Ocean after a routine tanker discharge went awry.

The black slick, pushed north by wind and currents, tarred 25 beaches, polluted three protected marine reserves, and covers an area of about 106 sq km (40 sq miles) - the size of Paris.