Rayong fishermen will ‘blockade’ refinery to demand compensation for gulf oil spills

Thousands of gulf fishermen will rally their boats to block access to an oil refinery this evening to demand compensation from the company responsible for two recent oil spills.

More than 2,000 people will take to the waters off the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Rayong province to demand Star Petroleum Refining pay each of them THB360,000 (US$11,000) after they rejected a company settlement offer over two spills that damaged marine wildlife and local businesses. They plan to bar access by sea and land.

The total is based on the company paying them each THB1,000 per day for one year. Refinery compensation chief Wichai Chunhasomboon said it would only offer one-time payments of THB30,000 (US$920) to each fisherman.

As a result, the fishing groups demanded to talk with the company’s executives and warned that they would set blockade Rayong’s Pradu…