Oil spill: not a problem until it happens

Feb 29, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

H@rd Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – After decades of dealing with oil, the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago is forced to deal with an oil spill. It is more than an oil slick, a spill that has Grenada trembling, and Venezuela watching, bracing. Presently, the Tobago oil spill is one of those mysterious ones: it doesn’t have an owner. After decades of no such troubling event developing, it is alarming how much scrambling is going on in Tobago to get in front of this spill.

GHK Lall

I will try to avoid covering ground that has already been traveled by others. Among which are lessons to be learned by Guyana, and what to do then. I think it is better, instead, to present this in a manner that many Guyanese from different walks of life should be able to relate to, and draw their own conclusions. An accident is of passing interest, not a concern, nor a problem, until there is involvement in one. The severer it is, the greater the regret, the more pronounced the second-guessing, the deeper the search for where things went wrong. It is the exact same situation with an oil spill (whether of moderate, menacing, or monstrous dimension).

Frankly, speaking, an oil spill is not thought of as a problem, until it happens, actually becomes one. Happens elsewhere, to other people, but not here. Nobody in his or her right mind is sitting down and hoping for an oil spill. God forbid that one should happen here. But the longer that an oil spill fails to materialize, the quicker and smoother it is to let down the guard. It is simply a matter of the odds, a normal human tendency. To remain on perpetual high alert, to bring one’s A-game day after day, can be wearing. On the people aboard rigs. the powers that are in control, as well as the people who could be affected. A degree of casualness is likely to seep into the way that things are done. People relax, even the most focused, the most diligent, of them. Casualness leads to negligence, and negligence could lead to any of the nightmare scenarios that is feared. The people in Tobago are doing more than scratching their heads. Their hair is now on fire, and they are trying to yank it out from the root.

There is a different pillar that is leaned on now. What are the odds of an oil spill occurring? What is the history of such spills? Oil companies and governments that work in close collaboration with them prefer to take the comforting road: why worry? Worry kills, is counterproductive. The odds are heavily in favour of no such alarming event ever taking place. In Guyana, I seem to recall Exxon’s people using the well-hedged language of “highly unlikely.” A blowout is a once in a generation-many generations, on some occasions-development. In Guyana’s parliament of all places that is supposed to be devoted to protecting the sovereign state, and the welfare of the people, there was mindless talk about how is the probability of an oil spill to be calculated? Plus, how to attach a metric to what is ‘unforeseen’, and how to measure the fallout.

Thinking of that kind of limited, self-serving, nakedly unprotective blather, I trot out an old favourite of mine. It is said, with the fullest justification, that aviation travel is the safest form of transportation in the world. It is, and the statistics are there to prove. There is one slight quirk in the inspiring aviation safety numbers. They don’t have any meaning for those passengers (and their loved ones) whose plane hit the ground or ocean nose first, or wing first, at several hundred miles per hour. The highly improbable and the near impossible just became the breaking headline news. There is nobody that I know who wants to be a part of that statistic. Statistical aberration, to be sure, but still fatal reality. This is not some Bermuda Triangle mystery, but the reality of 21st century flight history, and the infrequent tragedies that follow. Notwithstanding enhanced technology, modern weather equipment, highly trained men and women, and state of the art aircraft, among many other positives, accidents still happen. Not every week or month. But when they do, they blow the mind.

Just under 10 years ago, there was Malaysia, the ill-fated MH370, and less than a year ago, Japan Airlines, due to mixed signals and runway mix-up. In both instances, the human toll was in the hundreds. All the stats, all the history, meant nothing to those gone. Their survivors have some automatic insurance to help them pick up the pieces. The courts have their role to play. Regardless of where blame may be laid, that does not change the facts and fallouts on the ground.

In this country, politicians are so much in bed with the oil companies that there is a type of sleeping sickness that has taken over those who should be drawing a line about insurance coverage slash parent company guarantee. They should be demanding it, so that there is something to tide over people, economy, and country should there be an oil spill. One that brings regret for the lapses of those who knew what was required, but played games to feather their nests. Tobago is more than a warning. It is what is happening, and all the unknowns that could be coming.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

GHK Lall, Grenada, oil, spill, Trinidad and Tobago

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