(Trinidad Express) State-owned Petrotrin uncovered three acts of sabotage at its Central Los Bajos Field on Tuesday night.
Routine checks made by production personnel found a chemical shed on fire, an oil spill and the valves of four test tanks opened at around 11.45 pm.In a media release, Petrotrin stated that a report of three incidents at North Palo Seco, Tank Battery No.1 (McLeod Battery) in the Central Los Bajos Field was made by production personnel, who had been conducting routine checks. Investigations revealed that the three incidents were the result of sabotage, the company stated.
Petrotrin stated that a fire was started at the chemical shed located at the Battery, a two-inch diameter valve on Tank No. 1 was opened, and a bull plug removed from Tank No. 2, causing a quantity of oil and water to flow inside the bunded area.Petrotrin’s emergency response fire and HSE personnel were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The company stated that the fire at Tank Battery No. 1 was extinguished, the spill at Tank No. 2 was contained within the bunded area and the remaining oil from the tanks was pumped and moved to Main Storage area.
The valves on the four test tanks were closed.
Petrotrin stated that clean-up operations continued on Wednesday.
All regulatory agencies, including the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs, the Environmental Mana-gement Authority (EMA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) have been notified.
On Saturday, residents near the Vistabella River reported that oil was spotted in the watercourse, spreading to the nearby mangrove.
Energy Minister Franklin Khan called on Petrotrin to find the source of the spill.
Petrotrin was engaged in clean-up operations at the weekend and had shut off the line and deployed booms to ensure that oil did not reach the coast.
Investigations did not reveal that the incident was as a result of sabotage.
Upon investigation, it was ascertained that the source of spill was one of the condemned, corroded crude oil transit lines that runs parallel to the storm water drain at the Mossetville Manifold. The estimated volume of spilled crude oil is approximately less than one barrel.
On August 30, a production operator engaged in routine checks in the fields at Sewlal Trace, Fyzabad, observed that five well-head valves on oil wells located at were open and that approximately one barrel of crude oil had leaked into the environment. The five valves were immediately closed and Petrotrin’s Security department was informed.
Last week Thursday, Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet announced that refinery operations would cease on November 30.
He said permanent employees will receive their termination by the terms of the relevant collective agreements.
Espinet said the proposal submitted by the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) had failed to address critical issues regarding financing and profitability and there was insufficient information to give us an understanding of how the plan would work.
Espinet confirmed that the company’s 3,500 permanent staff will lose their jobs.
However, OWTU president general Ancel Roget said some 9,000 permanent, casual and contracted workers would be affected by the company’s closure.
