Oil Spill Committee launches probe into oily substance floating in Atlantic

Dec 06, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – A team attached to National Oil Spill Committee (NOSC) has launched an investigation into the reports of oily substances found floating offshore Guyana.
Kaieteur News understands that the investigation was launched hours after a video surfaced showing fisher folk operating in an area identified as Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) navigating what appears to be oil floating offshore.
According to the reports, the fishermen spoke of sighting of oily film floating in different points of the EEZ. An official close to the investigation has since revealed that though there has not been confirmation on whether the oily substance is in fact the product of a spill, the NOSC team is working assiduously to make a determination.
The officer explained: “We have a team from the National Oil Spill Committee working on it. The CDC has already started its preliminary investigation but it‘s too soon to get any feedback or confirmation on where the oil substance came from; whether it comes from commercial crude operations or not. We are hoping that by Monday [today] we have more solid information on what it is.”
He noted too that: “The team is doing their best with the data they collected to identify the affected areas based on the coordinates that we received but as known the area is quite vast. So, although we have an idea and we believe that it’s somewhere along Mahaica Coast, it’s quite a distance offshore and a huge area to cover.”
According to the source, the response team consists of a number of agencies that have some responsibility in the area of disaster risk management.
He listed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD), the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), and the Guyana Defence Force Air Corp and Coast Guard as having a role in the investigation. He noted too that, in addition to identifying the area where the oil is, the team will need to collect samples of the oily materials for tests.
In regard to this, the official emphasized “We can‘t just jump to any conclusions while the men are headed to the location to collect the samples so we can determine whether the substance is in fact related to the commercial crude operations we have going on offshore.”
“This is because as you are aware we had an incident earlier this year in which a similar oil substance was found floating somewhere in proximity with the Marriot but that turned out to be oil from chicken fat which was dumped somewhere offshore that area and found its way to the seashore,” the official added.
In the meantime, the EPA issued a statement promising that it will get to the bottom of the reports. The agency said that it will be conducting a separate probe into the videos which were circulated on Facebook.
“The EPA is conducting its own investigation – a fishing boat is on its way with staff from our Emergency Response Team to the general area as we don’t have specific coordinates, and also an aerial surveillance is being conducted today. Rest assured EPA is doing everything possible to get to the bottom of this,” the agency said via a post shared on its Facebook page.
Last Friday, fishermen operating in the Atlantic Ocean offshore Guyana told Kaieteur News of the growing concerns over what they describe as an oily film floating at different points of the water.
The substance has been leading many in the fishing industry to believe that the oil companies might be covering up a possible oil spill.
According to reports received by this publication from a number of fisher folks operating from Essequibo to Berbice, the oil floating in the water could possibly be the cause for the decline in their fish catch.
According to the reports, the black oily substance could be seen as close to the coast in the vicinity of the Anna Regina koker in Region Two.
This publication also spoke with some fishermen from the Berbice area who reported sightings similar to those reports emanating from the Essequibo Coast.
This publication has since been provided with a number of video footage captured by different individuals from various points in Guyana’s EEZ where the fishermen would ply their trade.
The videos depict a dark, sometimes foamy film floating on the ocean surface. In a number of the videos, sailors could be overheard shouting, words to the effect of “oil, this is oil; this got to be from an oil spill.”
Based on reports from the numerous individuals that this publication spoke with, many are of the view that, one or more of the oil operations in the EEZ, could be encountering difficulties that they are not reporting. Some bluntly claimed that the companies are being deliberately silent.

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