Mystery has continued to swirl around the responsibility and ownership of a vessel leaking oil offshore Trinidad and Tobago.
Some signs indicate, though, that the Gulfstream tank barge may have come from Venezuela. The vessel began leaking oil on February 7 off Tobago.
Oil in Trinidad
The government has remained largely silent on the issue. The Ministry of National Security issued a statement last week saying the barge was being towed by the Solo Creed tug, as of February 4.
The ministry said the vessels were on the way to Guyana, although neither vessel arrived and it was unclear whether any lives had been lost. No distress call was reported. The barge was discovered lodged on a reef and oil has spread from the Scarborough area to Lowlands
The Guyana Coast Guard supplied video footage to Trinidad that appeared to show the barge sinking.
Tanker Trackers reported that the Gulfstream barge had been in Pozuelo Bay, Venezuela, in the last week of Janaury. “She may have been carrying as much as 35,000 barrels of fuel oil,” the ship-tracking consultancy reported.
Open source investigators Bellingcat also provided some potential insights into the Gulfstream vessel. A report speculating on the tank barge’s identity found one likely candidate had been active in the US until 2012 when it was sold to a Panamanian company. It then began operating in the Caribbean and Venezuela.
On January 18, @planet SkySat (!) captured the Solo Creed/Ranger towing the Gulfstream, the highest resolution image I've seen of the pair. Someone was likely already watching the ships before the 18th in order to task this satellite image. pic.twitter.com/TUClmTCH5F
— Logan Williams (@obtusatum) February 15, 2024
Around 2020, Bellingcat reported the Gulfstream remaining around Venezuela’s Astinave shipyard. The report went on to speculate around the use of ghost fleets in Venezuela.
Should Bellingcat be correct on the vessel’s identity, the tank barge would be 48 years old.
Cross-border spill
Officially, the Trinidad and Tobago government has not confirmed the identity of the vessel. Tobago Emergency Management director Allan Stewart speaking to the media on the weekend declined to comment.
However, he said, the Ministry of National Security was “able to identify who is complicit in this incident. When the time is right, we will release this information to the public.”
Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil said the country had been monitoring the situation over the border.
“Meetings have been held at a technical level with our neighbours in order to evaluate the impacts and necessary mitigation measures. We are at the disposal of the government of Trinidad and Tobago to co-operate as required,” he said.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has reported the spill is spreading and, as of February 14, had travelled more than 160 km west. This could have an impact on Grenada’s southern marine areas – and into Venezuela.