Venzuelan oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea poses no threat: Reports

Trinidad and Tobago: A Venezuelan oil tanker carrying a million barrel of crude oil has been leaning to one side in the Caribbean. Authorities sent by Trinidad and Tobago government to examine the situation of the tanker declared that it does not posture any notable threat of dropping and creating an environmental emergency, officials of Trinidad and Tobago said Thursday.

Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Franklin Khan announced a team of specialists from Trinidad and Tobago examined the Nabarima – gliding storage and offloading equipment (FSO) – on Tuesday, allaying more initial concerns that it was on the verge of drowning and spreading 1.3 million barrels of oil.

The double-hulled oiler is “uninjured and professes a minimum chance of any fuel spills at this point”, Khan declared.

He said Venezuela had commenced the sluggish means of unloading oil to farther dodge accident, and an act assumed to take up to 35 days.

“The team confirm that major maintenance is ongoing,” Khan said.

“Pumps and electrical instruments are being restored and renewed as required.”

Trinidad executives announced they would proceed to watch the effort and have demanded for confirmation from Venezuela for a follow-up investigation in a month.

An international objection appeared in early September over the Venezuelan-flagged Nabarima, a 264-metre (866-foot) long vessel considered to be almost stretched to its capacity of 1.4 million barrels of crude — about five times the volume the Exxon Valdez that spilt in 1989.

The tanker was utilised as a stationary platform berthed in the Gulf of Paria and created to assist shipping of Venezuela’s oil. It was attached forever in waters between Venezuela and Trinidad.

The storage tanker has fallen inactive with the recent plunge in global energy demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to the United States bans on the Venezuelan government that have frightened away possible customers of the country’s large crude. Venezuelan administrators have refused all along that any jeopardy existed.