Trinidad turns to UK Fund for help in oil spill cleanup expected to cost US$20M

May 12, 2024 ExxonMobil, News, Oil & Gas

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A Lesson for oil-rich Guyana…

Kaieteur News – Lacking the requisite expertise and financial stature to tackle the cleanup of an environmental disaster caused by an overturned barge transporting hydrocarbons, Trinidad and Tobago has successfully managed to secure the assistance of a United Kingdom (UK) based Fund.

This was revealed by T&T’s Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Stuart Young, during a press conference last week.

It was on February 7 this year that the twin island learnt of the overturned marine vessel, not far off the shoreline, leaking hydrocarbons.

Young told reporters, “It very quickly became apparent to us that unfortunately the expertise that was needed to deal with this type of oil spill, a vessel that was overturned, no one knew the exact specifics of this vessel. We were trying to determine it etcetera.”

To this end, he said, “We had immediately started to look for the right international expertise to assist us.”

Within two weeks of the spill, the Ministry of Energy with the approval of the Cabinet retained two internationally recognized experts in containing, cleaning up and removing these types of substances from vessels and towage and salvage from the United States.

The Energy Minister reported that the team was in the process of removing the hydrocarbons that will be taken to containers on land for transportation to be stored.

Cost

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and the Tobago Emergency Management (TEMA) will be conducting the on-land oil spill cleanup of the fuel.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries is working with the experts to focus on the vessel and the removal of the leaked substances. Young said he expects the process to be completed by the end of this month.

According to him, “What I can say is that the cost that we have estimated at this stage from the central government side and certainly what we have been managing at the Ministry of Energy along with Heritage and other service providers…we can be looking at anywhere from US$14M to US$20M. That’s our best estimate at this stage.”

Young was keen to note that the THA too have been incurring certain costs that will be the responsibility of central government which will be assessed.

Good news

In relating the good news to islanders of the Republican state, Young revealed that in 2001, T&T signed onto the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage (1992), as well as the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (1992).

The Minister explained that these bodies take responsibility where the owners of vessels who are liable, don’t have sufficient insurance or coverage. They can apply for coverage to handle the “reasonable costs of oil spill cleanup”.

After becoming a member of these bodies, Trinidad, like other signatories, contributed to the Funds; however in 2018, after the shutdown of the PetroTrin Refinery, Trinidad restructured the facility and was no longer making contributions to the bodies.

The Minister explained, “Fortunately we joined these bodies in 2001, we made all of our contributions which were monetary contributions on an annual basis up to 2018. Since 2018 to now we continued to fulfill all of our obligations in terms of reporting on an annual basis, the types of activities taking place in Trinidad and Tobago.”

Trinidad therefore capitalized on the possibility of accessing assistance from the Fund “immediately” after it learnt of the spill.

“So immediately the Ministry of Energy in February identified that there may be a possibility for Trinidad and Tobago to access the benefit of this fund which is basically like an insurance or fund that would pay for the reasonable costs of an oil spill and we immediately reached out to them in a number of weeks- within a two-week period of the oil spill taking place we had filed with them the documentation to say that there may be a possibility of us claiming from this fund,” the Minister said.

A delegation led by the Minister of Energy in Trinidad then went to London where a presentation was made to the IOPC. Following submissions on April 24, 2024 to the Board, and a subsequent appearance before the Board on April 29, 2024 Trinidad’s request for cleanup assistance was approved.

According to the Minister, “The news is that we have succeeded in persuading the executive committee that for the Tobago oil spill incident all reasonable claims that are made will be compensated by this fund.”

Guyana’s oil spill preparedness

The recent incident in Tobago has sparked concern locally about Guyana’s preparedness to respond to such an event.

While it is estimated that some 35,000 barrels of fuel leaked into the blue waters of Tobago due to the capsized vessel, Guyana has ramped up its daily oil production to approximately 645,000 barrels of per day. Not only that but the country does not have an unlimited parent company guarantee to protect itself and Caribbean neighbours that could be hit by a massive spill that occurs from ExxonMobil’s operations.

Guyana has only managed to put in place a US$600M oil spill insurance coverage per event and a US$2B guarantee from the operator.

The country’s politicians have instead decided to craft an Oil Spill Legislation that should be tabled in the National Assembly soon to govern the transportation of hydrocarbons.

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• clean up, oil, spill, Trinidad, UK, Young

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