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An SOS has been sent to one of the world’s largest oil spill response companies based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to come to T&T to assist with the cleaning-up of a nine-mile area along the La Brea shoreline from Coffee and Carrat Shed beaches and other areas. Officials from Oil Spill Response Ltd are expected to visit La Brea today to begin work.
Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Ramnarine made the disclosure in an interview with the T&T Guardian after a site visit yesterday with president of state-owned Petroleum Company of T&T (Petrotrin) Khalid Hassanali and Tourism Minister Chandresh Sharma, the MP for the bordering Fyzabad constituency. The oil spill was discovered on Tuesday and a subsequent statement from Petrotrin said families living as far away as Chatham, Point Fortin, had to be evacuated because of the incident.
Up to yesterday, the source of the spill was not known. In a press release issued late yesterday, Ramnarine said additional areas affected were Station Bay, Patience, Granville, Fullerton and Cedros. President general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union Ancel Roget said Petrotrin must take some responsibility for the mishap. Roget also said his union suspected there was “a massive cover-up by Petrotrin to shield their friends in the lease operatorship arrangement.”
Roget said “silence and a cloud of secrecy are shrouded around the lease operators in the La Brea situation.” Speaking with the T&T Guardian after yesterday’s visit, Ramnarine said the spill was “serious and required urgent attention.” He said the recently-established National Oil Spill Contingency Plan was being triggered to the highest level—Tier 3. He explained that the Tier 3 level was being triggered because external help was required to deal with the problem.
According to Ramnarine, “a spill like the one in La Brea has not occurred in this country in living memory.” Ramnarine said Tier 1 is triggered if the company has resources to handle the spill; Tier 2 would be triggered if national resources were required and Tier 3 is triggered if external assistance is required. He said Petrotrin had a good relationship with Oil Spill Response Ltd, which was previously known as Clean Caribbean Americas.
According to Ramnarine, officials from the US firm were preparing to come to T&T yesterday via a special cargo flight. He said all required equipment were being brought on the flight. The minister said the team would go to the site today. He said his ministry was managing the clean-up exercise in collaboration with Petrotrin.
Head of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan is permanent secretary in the ministry, Selwyn Lashley. Ramnarine said the deputy head is Mark Rudder, a senior petroleum engineer in the same ministry.
The minister said the incident “was still a great mystery for us at the ministry and at Petrotrin.” He said investigations were continuing to determine the source of the discovery, which he said was a “hydrocarbon spill.” He said: “At this point we don’t want to blame anybody, we have not accused anybody of anything and we don’t want to make this into a political issue.
According to Ramnarine, there were other spills at Petrotrin installations at Pointe-a-Pierre and Rancho Quemado and two at Trinidad Marine Ltd (Trinmar) last week.
More Info:
• December 17, 2013: A weld leak was discovered on the No. 10 Sea Line at the Petrotrin, Pointe-a-Pierre, Port during fuel oil bunkers loading operations for the barge Marabella.
• Later that same day a gasket on a line at Riser Platform 5 in Trinmar’s Main Field leaked and oil spilled into the sea.
• December 18: Petrotrin received reports of oil at the Coffee Beach/Carrat Shed Beach areas in La Brea, affecting the beach and fishing vessels.
• The National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) was triggered to the Tier Two Level and an Incident Command Team, comprising the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs (MEEA), the Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA), the Coast Guard and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), began its assessment of the spill and clean-up activities.
• December 19: An oil leak was discovered in the area of Platform 17 in Petrotrin’s Trinmar Operations East Field.
• December 21: Trinity Oil and Gas reported that several valves on well-site tanks were discovered opened at its Petrotrin WD-2 Lease Operatorship Block in Rancho Quemado.
• The spills that occurred at Pointe-a-Pierre, Riser Platform 5 and Platform 17 in Petrotrin’s Trinmar Operations were successfully contained and the clean-up exercise is continuing. On December 19, clean-up activities at the Port at Pointe-a-Pierre were completed and terminated.
• December 22: the Minister of Energy triggered the NOSCP at the Tier Three Level to bring in overseas resources.
Oil Spill Response Limited Web site says the company provides “resources to respond to oil spills efficiently and effectively on a global basis. Oil Spill Response will continue its pursuit of excellence in providing cost effective oil spill response, training and consultancy services. Oil Spill Response will work towards improving communication, awareness of resources and capabilities, and where appropriate, encourage mutual support among the global population of international tier three oil spill co-operatives.
joker wrote:So our local oil spill crews like oil mop could not be contracted ? Im sure they have the amt of oil spill kits, vacuum trucks and polysorb the clean up the area ....and for the act of sabotage .....lol....gotta love this govt.....
joker wrote:So our local oil spill crews like oil mop could not be contracted ? Im sure they have the amt of oil spill kits, vacuum trucks and polysorb the clean up the area ....and for the act of sabotage .....lol....gotta love this govt.....
joker wrote:Even if they say the contractors do not have the right equipment.....im sure there is room in their procurement policies for emergencies and disasters ..and the stuff can be here within 2days ....!
pugboy wrote:rumor is they don't really know the spill sources and have been using
small leaks as the reasons
the pm say is an act of sabotage ....? I hadda learn how to sabotage a gasket ....but the valves I would say is sabotage ....and less security poses a higher risk and opportunities for theft...toyota2nr wrote:joker wrote:So our local oil spill crews like oil mop could not be contracted ? Im sure they have the amt of oil spill kits, vacuum trucks and polysorb the clean up the area ....and for the act of sabotage .....lol....gotta love this govt.....
Trying to figure out what exactly the gov't have to do with it. Sounds like sabotage to me. As soon as it became public Roget up and say it have vacancy for security and they need more guards. He seems to know more than he's telling.
maj. tom wrote:If it's really sabotage, then won't that fall under terrorism? Eco and energy security of this nation, and I'm sure the FBI may be interested too.
joker wrote:I am sure u can wave anything and get it done but we have to take into consideration how much the ppl wrt awarding of jobs will get in cutbacks and "gifts" and whether they can be traced.....
Reprisal for illegal diesel clampdown
By RICHARDSON DHALAI Sunday, December 22 2013
PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday that oil spills on the Gulf Coast and on land were being treated as acts sabotage of State-owned Petrotrin’s onshore and offshore drilling wells and investigations are underway.
Persad-Bissessar said following talks with Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine, she had been advised Petrotrin had commenced investigations into possible sabotage of one on-shore well and at four offshore installations.
Addressing the media during a toy drive in her constituency, Persad-Bissessar said:
“I spoke with (Minister) Kevin Ramnarine this morning and he has advised me that Petrotrin is investigating a possible sabotage of leaks. It would not be appropriate to blame anyone, but the nature of it seems to indicate that there may be some sabotage and therefore it needs to be investigated before we can say anything further.”
Ramnarine confirmed that National Security Minister Gary Griffith has been alerted to the possibility of sabotage, which Sunday Newsday learned, could be acts of reprisal over Government’s clamping down on the million dollar illegal diesel trade.
And at a press conference yesterday, Petrotrin’s president Khalid Hassanali confirmed that the company was investigating a possible sabotage of its installations, both onshore and offshore.
Hassanali told Sunday Newsday in one of the oil spillage incident, valves leading to a storage tank operated by Lease Operator - Trinity Oil in the Rancho Quemado field, were discovered open. This resulted in 80 to 100 barrels of oil been spilled yesterday morning. At the press conference, he said that in his 38 years of working in the oil industry, he had never experienced an oil spill the source of which could not be easily determined.
Hassanali said that the first oil spill incident occurred on Tuesday at the port on the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery when a line (No 10 Sea Line) began leaking during oil bunkering from a company’s barge called: “Marabella.”
The second incident occurred on a 16-inch line on the “Riser Platform” in Trinmar off the coast of Point Fortin, in which a gasket failed and oil was spilled into the sea. Oil washed the beaches of Chatham in which residents complained of nausea and breathing problems. Hassanali said on Wednesday the company was notified of oil at Coffee beach and Carrat Shed beach in La Brea, which affected bathers and fishermen.
The fourth incident occurred on Thursday when an oil leak was reported in the East Field area of Trinmar’s operations on Platform 17. Hassanali said the East Field rig and the Riser Platform were unmanned rigs.
Though he did not directly attribute the spills to the illegal bunkering in the million-dollar diesel racket, Hassanali noted “for quite a while now we have been dealing with illegal diesel and measures are being put in place to deal with it.”
“There have been discoveries of illegal diesel within the last several months, together with illegal scrap iron dealers,” he said.
Hassanali noted, “Over the last few days, we have had five incidents. Up to yesterday I was saying four, but last night (Friday night), on our land operations in Rancho Quemado, one of our lease operators, Trinity Oil, they discovered this morning a number of valves that were opened overnight with oil allowed to flow out of the tank ...
“The oil flowed out onto the land and the oil flowed out into a dam with water in it. The one, this morning to me, is one of grave concern. Valves were opened, found open, discovered open, doesn’t normally happen. All of these things don’t happen altogether.”
Hassanali said the clean-up will take some days but that were the crude oil to get into the water courses, consequences to persons and wildlife can be disastrous.
Energy Minister Ramnarine told the Sunday Newsday while he did not wish to “jump” to conclusions, there had not been five incidents of oil spillage over the past three years yet within a matter of days, five incidents had occurred.
“Why, all of a sudden, all of these incidents are taking place? I do not want to say if this is so, until I get more evidence but it is of great concern to me and to this Government,” he said.
Ramnarine said a Task Force has been appointed to investigate the incidents.
Petrotrin has advised residents, boat owners and fisher folk of Point Coco, Granville, Fullerton, Bonasse, Boodram Trace and Unity Beach in Cedros to exercise extreme caution and if possible, avoid venturing in or near the sea.
pioneer wrote:I wonder what's the fine?
When BP had the spill they were made to pay millions in fines
Sky wrote:Who will Petrotrin pay the fine to?
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