Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed said yes­ter­day that a leak along a 12-inch crude pipeline in Pointe-a-Pierre was the source of an oil spill on the week­end, but said it had been con­tained.

The com­pa­ny said that at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 7.30 pm on Sat­ur­day, Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed Ma­rine Se­cu­ri­ty ob­served an oil sheen along the Pointe-a-Pierre har­bour.

It said the com­pa­ny’s In­ci­dent Com­mand Team was ac­ti­vat­ed and per­son­nel were im­me­di­ate­ly dis­patched to lo­cate the source of the leak.

A fur­ther sea sur­vey done on Sun­day re­vealed ar­eas of oil sheen and oil streaks lo­cat­ed north of the Pointe-a-Pierre port. A shore­line sur­vey was al­so con­duct­ed.

Fishermen and Friends of the Sea president Gary Aboud rescues a pelican from the oil spill in the Gulf of Paria off Claxton Bay, Fishing Bay, yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Paria said it has re­spond­ed ur­gent­ly to de­ploy clean-up as­sets to min­imise the im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment and that ab­sorbent booms have been strate­gi­cal­ly placed to pre­vent fur­ther mi­gra­tion of oil in­to the sea.

The com­pa­ny said it has used vac­u­um trucks to re­move oil col­lect­ed on land and oil streaks were be­ing me­chan­i­cal­ly bro­ken up at sea.

How­ev­er, watch­dog group Fish­er­men and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) is not ac­cept­ing Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed’s state­ment.

On a tour of the Gulf of Paria yes­ter­day, FFOS sec­re­tary Gary Aboud said they saw thick clumps of oil for miles af­fect­ing the en­tire coast­line as far as Ch­aguara­mas.

Fish­er­man Im­ti­az Khan said the spill was an­oth­er blow to the in­dus­try.

Fishermen and Friends of the Sea president Gary Aboud uses his hand to show the oil spill in the Gulf of Paria off Point Lisas yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

“I think they will blame us again be­cause any­thing that hap­pens in the sea they blame the fish­er­men. It is sad to see that in 2018 up to this date, we have not been com­pen­sat­ed from that spill and three years have passed and now we are in 2021 and yet an­oth­er spill,” Khan said.

“The whole Gulf, the Gulf of Paria, is the nurs­eries of fish­eries and if this is hap­pen­ing in the Gulf, it can af­fect the in­dus­try dra­mat­i­cal­ly, es­pe­cial­ly when you have to face the in­crease of fu­el.”

Fishermen and Friends of the Sea president Gary Aboud rescues a pelican from the oil spill in the Gulf of Paria off Claxton Bay, Fishing Bay, yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH