The tanker tipped onto its side at 06:40 on Wednesday on a narrow service road in Sicily’s Augusta industrial zone, spilling about 46,000 litres of marine diesel into a paved drainage basin. The driver climbed out unaided, and emergency crews contained the fuel before it reached the sea, local officials said.
The truck had been diverted after about 3,200 people blocked the main gate of the Ionian Meridian Fuels refinery, protesting against the company’s planned expansion. Police closed the usual approach road as demonstrators gathered before dawn, forcing delivery vehicles onto the service route, which has a sharp bend beside a stone drainage wall.
The company suspended tanker movements and halted two loading units while crews cleared the road. Ionian Meridian said the stoppage could delay 13,000 tonnes of fuel deliveries and cost up to €22 million in postponed sales if it lasts 48 hours; it did not say whether that figure included the cost of cleanup.
The diversion that went wrong
Åse Björklund, a spokesperson for the local emergency coordination office, said the vehicle struck the low wall and rolled at the bend. “The tank held together. The fuel stayed inside the paved containment area, and crews put barriers across the drainage outlet before any reached open water,” she said. Water samples were being taken from the channel and nearby harbour.
The expansion is the largest proposed industrial investment in Sicily in decades. Ionian Meridian has pledged €18.4 billion to build a new fuels complex, hydrogen units and storage at the existing site, saying the project would create 1,700 construction jobs and make the plant one of Europe’s biggest producers of low-carbon fuels.
They promised a refinery bigger than anything here, but the road carrying its fuel is barely wide enough for two trucks.
Cydney Huel, protest organiser
Huel said the demonstration included residents, port workers and small-business owners worried about traffic, air quality and the project’s public subsidies. Organisers said the march was peaceful and that they had asked lorry drivers not to use the service road. The company said its deliveries had been rerouted under an approved traffic plan.
Cleanup and costs mount
Eight specialist vehicles and 34 responders were at the scene by mid-morning, according to the emergency coordination office. Crews laid absorbent barriers around the basin and used pumps to recover fuel. The environmental office said its first inspections found no sheen in the harbour, but would continue checks through Thursday.
The spill comes as Augusta’s port weighs the refinery’s promised jobs against the strain of serving a larger plant. Hanan Birkeland, who runs a nearby freight depot, said three of her lorries were held for more than two hours when access roads closed. “A single blocked gate can freeze half the industrial strip,” she said.
The company said it would review the diversion route with local authorities before resuming tanker traffic and expects the first loading unit to reopen on Thursday. The protest organisers have called for a public meeting on the expansion next week; the project’s final investment decision is due by December.
