Georgetown (Guyana) (AFP) – Guyana will send a team of experts to Trinidad and Tobago to help clean up the oil spill that prompted the country to declare a state of emergency, Guyanese Foreign Minister Robert Persaud told AFP on Saturday.
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“Right now, it's about assessing and providing the necessary support as well as allowing our team to become familiar with the real-world scenario,” Persaud said.
The team, made up of five members from the Civil Defense Commission, Maritime Administration and the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency, will provide support between Sunday, February 18 and Thursday, February 22.
“Given that we have built local capacity with the emergence of our oil and gas sector, this is the best we can do,” Persaud added.
At least two ships, a ship and a tugboat, are involved in the oil spill that affected the coast of Tobago more than a week ago, according to government information.
Initially, there were reports of an oil tanker named “Gulf Stream” capsizing on the southeastern coast of the island of Tobago, without knowing details about the fate of its crew.
But investigations by the Trinidadian Coast Guard Service “revealed that the ships were apparently headed to Guyana.”
“Guyanese authorities have confirmed that none of the ships arrived as planned. At this time it is not known whether there were any casualties in the incident,” the Ministry of National Security said this week.
More than 1,000 volunteers are participating in the cleanup operations.
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