Senior Reporter
otto.carrington@cnc3.co.tt
Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine says he will not stop asking questions about who owns the Gulfstream barge that has been spilling oil along parts of the island’s west coast.
It has been ten days since the spill started from the overturned vessel, creating an environmental hazard in Tobago which also began threatening Grenada on Thursday and Venezuela yesterday.
Speaking to the media during his daily briefing on the status of the sea in Scarborough, Augustine, responding to claims by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in Parliament that the Government was not hiding information on the vessel involved in the spill, said, “My duty is to protect Tobago’s interests in all of this and I have a responsibility to ask those questions. I hope the Central Government aren’t offended by those questions but I like to operate with transparency and I will ask and continue to ask those questions until I get an answer.”
He added, “I did not state specifically who I think were withholding information but I made it quite clear, and I’ll repeat myself, because you see, sometimes people hear information and they create their own headlines that does not always line up with what was said.”
The Chief Secretary said the press release from the Ministry of National Security left the THA with a lot of unanswered questions as to who was responsible for the unanswered questions.
“I cannot say nor did I venture to say. Those unanswered questions remain unanswered at this point. Such as, number one, who is the owner of the vessel that ran aground in Tobago and is leaking oil? If we are aware that a vessel went missing from sometime the 4th of January, I believe the press release said, then certainly somebody had to have reported that it was missing. So, who is the owner of that vessel?
“Question two, where are the schematics for the vessel? The schematics really and truly are the drawings, the outline of this vessel, that can tell us shape, size, compartments, so we know what we are working with.”
A preliminary investigation into the oil spill has found that the overturned barge blamed was being tugged to nearby Guyana when it ran into trouble.
Guyana Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has already indicated that his country cannot be held accountable for the incident, since it was a private entity involved in the exercise. However, he has offered to provide technical support if called upon.
Augustine had also claimed he had information that the owner of the vessel involved may have been interested in purchasing the Petrotrin refinery.
Noting the PM’s response in Parliament on this issue, Augustine said, “From the get-go, we have been working together on the issue but I am saying quite clearly that I will continue to ask those questions until such time as I get answers. The Prime Minister answered one of the questions.
“I did mention to you that I found it oddly coincidental that someone can WhatsApp me some information 24 hours earlier, and then some of that turned out to be true 24 hours later in an official release. I felt it duty-bound to ask some open-ended questions, which I did. My understanding is that the Prime Minister answered one of those questions, which is to say that it is patently ridiculous and I hope I’m not misquoting him, for any suggestion to be made that the owners of the vessel are interested in purchasing our refinery from us. So that question is answered quite strongly and it’s answered in the negative.”
Since the spill, various State agencies from Trinidad and the THA, along with private companies, have been assisting in the clean-up operation.
Augustine pointed out that divers from the Maritime Division out of the Ministry of Works dived with a view to seeing if the leak could be plugged and they have since reported that it is too dangerous and not feasible to plug the leak.
After the oil reached Grenadian waters, that country contacted the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.
Augustine also said he welcomed support from Venezuela, whose Vice President Delcy Rodriguez offered technical assistance during a meeting with Energy Minister Stuart Young in Caracas on Thursday. He said he was willing to work with anybody to fix this issue.
Augustine said samples of the oil had been taken but more tests were taken closer to the spill and sent to the Institute of Marine Affairs for testing.