Petrotrin leaks oil in Trinidad

PORT OF SPAIN, November 17, 2017 – Trinidad and Tobago’s state-owned Petrotrin suffered an above-ground oil spill on Thursday, local media reported. This incident is the NOC’s third leak in as many months.

The new spill has been attributed to Petrotrin’s Trinmar operations at platform 14 in Cluster 21 of the Soldado North field, located in the Gulf of Paria.

The event follows an October 16 spill in the waters off Chaguaramas, which itself was preceded by an April 23 event involving Tank 70 at Petrotrin’s Pointe-à-Pierre refinery. During that incident, around 300 barrels of bunker fuel spilled into the Guaracara River, which feeds into the Gulf of Paria.

“Petrotrin has informed the EMA [Environmental Management Authority] that activities are underway to contain residual crude oil escaping from a pressurised pipeline, while assets have been mobilised to contain crude oil currently in the water,” the EMA said in a statement . “Trinmar is also carrying out assessments along the southwestern peninsula to determine whether there was any impacted shoreline.”

Ageing infrastructure and inattention to maintenance have been cited as the leading causes for the continuing spills, which have had a detrimental effect on the surrounding environment.

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