RIO DE JANEIRO, April 4: A Brazilian prosecutor is demanding that US oil giant Chevron and the oil drilling contractor Transocean pay $10.9 billion for a spill off southeastern Brazil last month, Chevron said on Wednesday.

The penalty sought of 20 billion reals, or $10.9 billion, “is arbitrary, speculative and not based on facts,” the US oil company said in a statement sent to AFP.

On March 4, an oil spill was detected at a depth of 1,300 meters (4,200 feet) three km (two miles) from the site of a bigger spill that occurred last November in the Frade field operated by Chevron, some 370 km (230 miles) northeast off Rio de Janeiro state.

“The oil spill from Frade has yet to be contained. The damage to the environment is immeasurable. Each new accident increases the damage and spotlights the mistakes of the accused,” Eduardo Santos de Oliveira, the prosecutor from Campos, said.

The US oil giant had already been fined a total of $54 million after the first oil spill at the Frade field in November.—AFP