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Tilting Venezuela Oil Tanker Threatens ‘Environmental Catastrophe’
Environment Oct 23, 2020
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Trinidad and Tobago said Thursday that a damaged oil tanker off the island’s coast was “stable” after opposition politicians in neighboring Venezuela warned of a potential “environmental catastrophe.” The damaged tanker, which is in the waters separating Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago and is owned by Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, threatens to spill 1.3 million barrels of crude into the water.
“The ship is straight and stable without any visible risk of sinking,” Energy Minister Franklin Khan said during a video conference in Puerto Espana. The Nabarima tanker, anchored for several months in the Gulf of Paria, is used to store oil, but video footage shared on October 16 by the Fisherman and Friends of the Sea NGO showed it tilting. A team of three “experts” boarded the ship Tuesday, the day after receiving the green light from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, Khan said.
A video image released by the Fishermen and Friends of the Sea NGO on October 22 shows the tilted Nabarima oil tanker The findings showed that “there was no water ingress on the vessel visible to the team. Which means the ingress reported in early September no longer exists,” the minister said. According […]
