KRALENDIJK (Reuters) – Shipping will remain halted at least until the weekend at a 12-million-barrel oil storage terminal on the tiny and pristine Caribbean island of Bonaire as a fire raged in a naphtha tank, a senior official said.
Bonaire is a popular scuba diving destination known for well protected coral reefs and crystalline water.
Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA uses the site to mix and ship crude and products to China and the United States. The island sits 50 miles (80 km) off Venezuela’s northern coast and is part of the Dutch Antilles.
Marine manager Francis Domacasse told Reuters firefighters were unable to do more to control the fire and that personal would only return to the site when the blaze was extinguished.
“After this, they are going have to do an inventory of the damage,” Domacasse said. “No boat will go in today or tomorrow, for sure.”
A dense cloud of black smoke and large flames could be seen from across the island yesterday, raising concerns of environmental damage from soot-fall, gases and chemicals released by the fire.
Island Lieutenant Governor Glenn Thode said firefighters had decided to let the blaze burn itself out because they had insufficient foam to extinguish the 200,000 barrels of highly volatile naphtha that caught fire in an electrical storm on Wednesday.
Thode told reporters he estimated the fire would burn out later in the day and that there was little risk of it spreading to more of the Venezuelan-owned terminal’s 23 storage tanks. Domacasse said intense heat was melting the metal tank but that cooling systems should stop the fire spreading.
Thode, who arrived at a news conference in a car blackened by smoke, said villagers who live close to the terminal had been ordered to stay indoors to avoid noxious gases if a dense plume of smoke drifted in their direction.
He said the government was worried about damage to the island’s delicate ecosystem from gas and chemicals released by the blaze.
