Officials in Barbados Say No Marine Contamination Detected As Oil Spill Cleanup in Oistins Continues
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Efforts to contain and clean up a crude oil spill in Oistins, on the island’s south coast, are progressing steadily, with no evidence so far that the oil has entered the sea, according to government officials.
Energy Minister Senator Lisa Cummins (left) and Barbados National Energy Company Ltd. Group Health and Safety Manager Damien Catlyn inspecting the site. (Photo: Barbados Today)On Saturday, a day after a ruptured crude oil pipeline at the Barbados National Energy Company Ltd. (BNECL) fuel loading facility caused oil to spill onto the beach and into storm drains, Minister of Energy Senator Lisa Cummins visited the affected site with a team from BNECL.
A combination of physical barriers—including booms, sand berms, and absorbent materials—was installed to prevent the spread of the oil into marine ecosystems. The cleanup operations involve continuous flushing of underground drainage systems, extraction of tainted sand, and filtration of oily water.
BNECL’s Group Health and Safety Manager Damien Catlyn explained the containment and flushing strategy: “We brought forward an interim dam . . . to push our contaminated material further in. That allows us now to start concentrating on the sand that we can remove . . . . We’ve begun the flushing process again to get … all of the residues out of the subterranean drains.”
A layered defense has been constructed along the coastline to minimize the environmental impact.
“We have a triple layer of protection protecting the marine environment,” Catlyn said. “First, we created a berm with clean sand. Then we reinforced it with sargassum… the sea tends not to wash away the sargassum as fast. Seaward of that, we laid two layers of absorbent boom.”
So far, inspections have not revealed any oil making its way into the marine environment.
“We inspected the boom this (Saturday) morning. The boom was perfectly clean, so we assured ourselves that there was no seepage,” said Catlyn. However, preparations remain in place should weather conditions shift. “We also are going to leave a skimmer… it’ll pull oil off the surface, and we would collect it into a tank to keep it safe.”
Minister Cummins noted that while visible oil was being addressed, hidden contaminants posed their own challenges.
“When we arrived (Friday), we would have seen the oil coming down,” she said. “But all of the oil did not end up behind those booms . . . some would have gone through the drainage systems. So we can’t just clean that which you can see; you have to clean everything that you can’t see.”
Specialized equipment is now being used to push water through drainage systems to flush out residual oil, which is then collected by skimmers and transported to holding tanks. According to Cummins, much of what is now being removed is not fresh oil, but water used during flushing.
“What you are seeing now isn’t the original oil that you saw running yesterday,” she said. “What you’re seeing is water that has been used to flush down the system… and that is what is being carted away.”
The recovered oil is taken to BNECL’s facility for processing.
While the full extent of environmental impact is still being assessed, Cummins gave assurances that the situation is being managed with transparency.
“It’s an ongoing process. It’s not a one-and-done, as you can see because we’re back out here,” she said.
Nearby residents have been advised to remain alert, although officials report visible improvements in some locations. “This is now a settling pond,” Catlyn said of one section. “The water quality is significantly better than it was when we first had the issue.”
Clean-up efforts are expected to continue in the coming days and weeks. The incident also remains under investigation.
