The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price is down 1.3% in early afternoon trading.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) energy stock closed yesterday trading for $7.01 per share with shares currently trading for $6.92 apiece.
That's largely in line with the wider market, with the S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) down 1.2% at this same time.
The Santos share price appears resilient today, despite media reports the oil company deceived the public about the severity of an offshore oil spill last March.
What allegations were levelled?
As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, Santos was responsible for some 25,000 litres of oil spilling into the sea off Western Australia's Pilbara coast in March 2022.
Santos did not publicly report on the spill at the time.
When the SMH reported on the incident in April, a Santos spokeswoman reportedly called it a "minor spill" with a "negligible" impact on the environment.
But in a fresh development, which has yet to have a material impact on the Santos share price, an anonymous whistleblower said the oil slick caused the deaths of numerous marine animals, including dolphins.
The informant's statement was heard at a Senate committee yesterday.
"Tens of thousands of litres of oil in the ocean, dead dolphins and sea snakes. How was this negligible?" they said.
"I felt strongly that Santos' comment was baseless, designed to mislead and avoid accountability," they added, noting that the company didn't send experts to the site until a week following the mishap.
At the time of writing, Santos has not yet responded to the allegations.
Santos share price snapshot
As you can see in the chart below, the Santos share price is down 2% over the past 12 months.
Longer-term shares in the ASX 200 oil company are up 35% over five years.
At the current price, Santos has a market cap of approximately $23 billion.
