Workers of Heritage Petroleum Oil and Gas Company clean up the oil spill that reached Rockly Bay beach, in Scarborough, southwestern Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago, February 11, 2024. Photo: AP/Akash Boodan.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley described as “patently ridiculous” the allegations that the oil spill currently affecting the island of Tobago was caused by the state-owned Petrotrin refinery. The Caribbean island country has declared a state of emergency to deal with the disaster.
More than a week after the mysterious oil spill was first sighted off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, it is moving eastward toward the Caribbean Sea, north of Venezuela, according to a statement from Trininad and Tobago’s disaster management agency, TEMA, which has alerted the neighboring countries.
Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry Yvan Gil posted on social media on Wednesday, February 14, that Venezuela is “monitoring the spill” and has started talks with the Trinidadian government to coordinate the response and cooperate with Trinidadian authorities in all possible ways.
“Following President Nicolás Maduro’s instructions, we have been monitoring the situation generated by the oil spill that occurred in the waters of Trinidad and Tobago on February 7,” Minister Gil wrote in an X post. “We have held meetings with our neighbors at a technical level to evaluate the impacts and necessary mitigation measures. We are ready to cooperate as required with the government of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Regarding the investigation into what happened, Trinidadian Prime Minister Rowley said on Friday, February 16, that while “the government has made good progress and has identified many leads,” so far there has been no definitive identification of the ship’s operators or owners. “There is, as yet, no definitive identification of operators or ownership and confirmation of the offending parties. We have also not yet determined the nature of the operation which resulted in the wreckage drifting to our shores,” he said.
“At this stage we believe that this whole situation was triggered by a towing operation gone bad. The nature and legality of the operations are yet to be determined,” he noted.
“We will also relentlessly seek to find out who is responsible and hold them liable for all that they are required to indemnify us for,” added the prime minister.
According to the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, two vessels, a tugboat and a barge, coming from Panama and bound for Guyana, are believed to have been responsible for the disaster.
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Regarding the cuurent situation of the ship, Rowley explained that it is still stuck on Cove Reef and continues to pose “a major threat” as it continues to foul the coast and surrounding seas. “Our major task now is to empty the contents of the vessel in a controlled operation and neutralize the threat,” he said.
“At the moment, we have offers of help from major oil-handling nations, Brazil and Venezuela,” Rowley added. “And the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs is in contact through the established protocols and will continue to advance these discussions.”
According to the Trinidadian National Security Ministry, the barge was towed by a tugboat, the Solo Creed, from Panama. The Ministry added that it is yet to be confirmed whether any fatalities occurred in the incident. The authorities of Panama, Aruba, and Guyana have been contacted by Trinidad as well as by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in order to collect information for the investigation.
According to satellite images taken three days before the incident, the tugboat and barge were spotted in the Caribbean Sea. TankerTrackers, a monitoring service, reviewed the satellite images of the barge and the tugboat and stated that the vessels were headed to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SC
