Petrotrin oil spill reaches Venezuela

On Monday, sea bathers in Point Fortin reported oil on their skin and a pelican covered with oil came ashore. One person said the bird appeared to be in distress and could not even flap its wings because of the oil. On Sunday night, however, the ministry said it been “monitoring the response of Petrotrin to the oil spill from Tank 70 in the Point-a-Pierre Refinery .

“The National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) was activated to a Tier 2 level (which allowed for maximum use of in country resources) on April 24, and the ministry is employing the incident management system to manage this spill in coordination with Petrotrin and other Government agencies...” In addition to containment, recovery and clean-up activities, the ministry said, “The management of the spill included tracking its trajectory via computer- based models complemented by daily aerial and marine surveys.” These surveys, according to the ministry, indicated movement of the spill in a westerly direction towards the TT/Venezuela maritime boundary.” The ministry also initiated the activation of the TT/ Venezuela Bilateral Oil Spill Plan via diplomatic channels through the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs and at the operational level with officials of Petr?leos de Venezuela, PDVSA .

The ministry said “daily monitoring and reporting on oil spill response here and in Venezuela will continue in accordance with established protocols and the public will be advised on any further developments .