Authorities in Trinidad Seeking to Identify Vessel Leaking Oil in Tobago Waters

SCARBOROUGH, Tobago –The Trinidad and Tobago government on Sunday said it is not ruling out seeking overseas assistance in dealing with an oil spill that has been impacted Tobago.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley (Right) and Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of assembly, Farley Augustine at news conference on Sunday (CMC Photo)Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, who led a ministerial delegation that included his Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Stuart Young and Transport Minister, Rohan Sinanan, told a news conference that efforts to determine the owners and name of the vessel at the center of the spill that began on Wednesday last week.

“An unknown vessel has apparently drifted upside down into Tobago’s zone. That vessel, we don’t know who it belongs to, we have no idea where it came from and we also don’t know all that it contains.

“What we do know, it appears to be broken having made contact here and is leaking some kind of hydro carbon that is foiling the water and the coastline,” Rowley told reporters, adding “that vessel could have come to us from any kind of operation, especially if the operation is illicit”.

Rowley told reporters that at the national level “we may require help, because once we start talking about salvaging, which is to get the vessel into a place where we can control what’s going on, we may have to have outside help.

“I can tell you Trinidad and Tobago as a country, we have been offered significant help from friendly nations who have been involved in this and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Security are currently engaged in talking to people with more capacity than Trinidad and Tobago”.

He said that the authorities are working alongside a number of foreign and local energy companies here, adding “we can’t undo what is done, we can’t pretend the vessel did not come here”.

Rowley said because of the situation, the authorities have not yet been able to determine “the physical nature of the vessel.

“So we are not sure if it is a freighter, a tanker or a barge, because only the keel of the vessel is visible and its identifying physical characteristics are in water that we can’t penetrate for the moment. We are doing all that is possible to answer these questions.”

Rowley told reporters that from a mobilisation point of view, “anything that needs to be done has been to this point done, is being done and will be done, to ameliorate, to minimise and eventually eliminate the threat that the vessel poses to us

“We are waiting for the results of the tests to determine what the content of the cargo is and I resume some time in the not too distant future we will determine what other cargo and quantum on board because we have not be able to determine if is bunker fuel, fuel for the vessel or raw crude.

“Those are answers we don’t have at this point in time but as the days pass and additional work is done and the experts are on the various inputs, we should be able to answer most if not all of these questions as we go forward,” Rowley said.

More than 1,000 volunteers are involved in the cleanup of the spill as the authorities try to isolated the leak from the vessel which had been abandoned by its crew.

Chief Secretary of the Tobago house of Assembly (THA),Farley Augustine, told the news conference that Tobago did not have the equipment there to deal with the situation, but has since been able to deploy booms preventing the oil from spreading into other areas.

He said the task is also to “identifying the vessel,” adding “we still have not been able to identify the vessel by name. There may be some characteristics and not withstanding using ROV’s (remote operated vehicles) we have not been successful in identifying an IMO number.

“And so the next task is to use infrared to more or less identify the structure of the vessel and to see what is contained therein,” Augustine said, adding that the “toxic” materials picked up on the beaches are being properly disposed of.

He said not many of the wildlife have been affected by the oil spill and that those engaged in the clean up exercise “are actively looking for impact on wild life.

“The impact to date on wildlife, thankfully has been minimal  considering what has transpired. We have not found considerable number of animals affected as yet, but they (volunteers) are working both day and night …”.

Rowley said it is clear that “not an insignificant costs are incurred just to respond to this incident we did not plan for and that we did not expect, but it has happened.

“We are in the containment phase now. This phase will remain as long as the vessel is there and is a threat with contents that could foul our environment”.

He said the next stage would be to emptying the vessel “because if it is one thing that we cannot do is to leave the vessel there with content that could just keep spewing into the water because if we do that we will be at the mercy of the tide.

“Fortunately, the weather is good right now, so the booms are effective in holding the spill in the zone that it is in, but if the weather changes significantly, especially on high tides…the behavior of what is spilled from the vessel could change…and the last thing we want is for any of it to escape where it is right now”.