State-owned Petrotrin is reporting that it has made significant headway in its clean up, recovery and rehabilitation operations following an oil spill at its Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery two Sunday’s ago.
In a release, Petrotrin stated: “While these activities continue, ongoing monitoring remains in place to ensure that no stakeholder communities are impacted. Our Oiled Wildlife Management Plan remains in effect.
“As we continue to work together with established centres for the rehabilitation and release of birds and wildlife, stakeholders with information that can help our search and rescue efforts can continue to contact our 24-hour emergency response hotline - 658-SAFE (7233).
“We recognise and share the concern of the national community for the impact of last Sunday’s incident and appreciate the support extended from stakeholders for our continued efforts to manage, contain and resolve this situation. As our incident command team continues to work around the clock to return all aspects of our operations to a state of normalcy, we give our commitment to provide further updates where there are new developments or upon conclusion of this exercise.”
Last week, former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine called on Petrotrin to clarify conflicting reports about the size and extent of the oil spill and say why the tender process for the construction of walls for high risk shortage tanks in the refinery was stopped in 2016.
Petrotrin had initially reported that 20 barrels had leaked from a ruptured storage tank, but later the Environmental Management Authority in a release stated it had been informed by the company that 20,000 gallons of bunker fuel had escaped. In a subsequent statement, Petrotrin stated it was really 300 barrels of oil which leaked from the tank.
