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Alarm in Venezuela at the risk of sinking a freighter with 1.5 million barrels of crude

2020-10-28T01:35:48.507Z


Petróleos de Venezuela and the Italian ENI study mechanisms to unload fuel The ship 'Nabarima' sinks in the Paria Peninsula (Venezuela) .FFOS / EFE The Nabarima oil tanker , with a cargo of 1.5 million barrels of crude, has been stranded for days off the Venezuelan coast and has begun to sink off the coast of the Paria Peninsula, in the east of the country, in the maritime space that it shares with Trinidad and Tobago. The risk of sinking the ship has raised the alarm o


The ship 'Nabarima' sinks in the Paria Peninsula (Venezuela) .FFOS / EFE

The

Nabarima

oil

tanker

, with a cargo of 1.5 million barrels of crude, has been stranded for days off the Venezuelan coast and has begun to sink off the coast of the Paria Peninsula, in the east of the country, in the maritime space that it shares with Trinidad and Tobago.

The risk of sinking the ship has raised the alarm of ecologists after in recent weeks it leaned about five centimeters to the right side and submerged a few meters, just at the limit of its floating zone.

In addition to environmental groups, oil union leaders and deputies have also expressed concern about the danger of an eventual oil spill and an ecological disaster.

The trade unionist Eudis Girot and the President of the National Assembly's Environment Commission, María Gabriela Hernández, have denounced the deterioration of the

Nabarima

ship in

recent weeks

and have demanded a quick intervention.

Neither the political management of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil company, nor the Government of Nicolás Maduro, however, have spoken on this issue.

The environmental safety procedures of the Venezuelan oil company, once reliable, have been dangerously relaxed with the corruption and loss of assets of the Chavez years, and in recent times serious industrial accidents and spills have been frequent.

The last, of 25,000 barrels, was produced at the El Palito refinery, on the country's west coast, two months ago.

The Italian company ENI, a minority partner of the Venezuelan state in the exploitation of these oil fields, and PDVSA have agreed to work together to unload one and a half million barrels of

Nabarima

, a non-motorized freighter built by the ConocoPhillips company years ago to store crude.

It was expropriated by Hugo Chávez some time later and paralyzed since 2019 due to international sanctions and the fall in oil sales.

The voice of alarm raised by environmentalists and Venezuelan oil workers reached the neighboring island of Trinidad, a country that also has an energy tradition and would be badly damaged by a spill.

Some NGOs in that country have also expressed concern about the final destination of the oil stranded from the boat.

The Minister of Industry and Energy of Trinidad and Tobago, Franklin Khan, declared that a team of experts from his country had boarded the cargo ship, very close to its territorial waters, together with the Venezuelan authorities.

Upon inspection, they found no signs of tipping that could lead to its immediate collapse.

"I am very pleased," declared Khan.

"The report of the technical team gave a relatively positive perspective of what is happening there."

"What is known about this issue is much less than what is not known," affirms, however, Alejandro Álvarez, activist of the environmental organization Clima 21. "According to the information we handle, it is a construction in poor condition , heeling and with internal leaks.

The crude must be stored in a double liner, and there is, for now, the guarantee that it will not leak.

Unless it turns around: if that alteration of its axis that has been noted continues, that could happen, and it would be a tragedy ”.

Nabarima

has almost no employees available, its alarm systems are inoperable and its electric generators are not working, according to complaints from oil workers.

Álvarez, however, acknowledges that right now, the risk of a massive oil leak in eastern Venezuela, in a scenario that could be similar to the famous Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, is low.

"It is a construction that has been in this problem for several months, the Venezuelan oil unionists have been denouncing it," says Venezuelan oil expert and academic Rafael Quiroz.

“PDVSA is going to use that oil to pay debts to individuals with crude.

Work to unload the crude is just beginning.

These freighters are used as a kind of deposit on the high seas, especially now that the national deposits of crude on land are at full capacity ”.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-10-28

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