Authorities investigate possible spill off Trinidad’s coast

KE­JAN HAYNES

Lead Ed­i­tor – News­gath­er­ing

Au­thor­i­ties are in­ves­ti­gat­ing a pos­si­ble spill off Trinidad’s coast af­ter re­ports and video footage emerged from the wa­ter­front area on Fri­day.

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said the Min­istry of En­er­gy, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um and the Air Guard were con­duct­ing a joint op­er­a­tion to de­ter­mine the source and na­ture of the sub­stance.

“We are co­or­di­nat­ing a joint ac­tiv­i­ty to as­cer­tain the facts. We are in touch with the Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs as well. We have de­ployed sea ves­sels and drones to con­duct re­con­nais­sance. We have re­ceived a re­port from our Venezue­lan coun­ter­parts and are ur­gent­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing,” Mooni­lal said.

Reuters re­port­ed that Venezuela’s gov­ern­ment said on Fri­day that an oil spill orig­i­nat­ing from Trinidad and To­ba­go was putting re­gion­al fish­ing and the en­vi­ron­ment at risk.

“This event ex­ceeds in mag­ni­tude the one that oc­curred in May and con­firms the drift of pol­lu­tants to­ward Venezue­lan wa­ters,” the Venezue­lan gov­ern­ment said in a state­ment, with­out pro­vid­ing de­tails on the ex­tent of the spill. It said the spill was con­firmed by satel­lite im­agery.

Mooni­lal said one con­cern is that if the sub­stance is con­firmed to be oil, it could drift in­to Venezue­lan wa­ters.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.