A huge ship from Venezuela sinks in the Caribbean with more than a million barrels of oil and they fear an environmental disaster

10/20/2020 18:40

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 10/20/2020 6:40 PM

The image of

and leaning to one side off a remote Venezuelan coast has sparked renewed international calls for a colossal spill of historic proportions to be prevented.

After years of neglect, FSO Nabarima, a rusty monster of Venezuelan oil company PDVSA

, is in a dangerous state of disrepair.

Although the extent of the damage is unknown, if it is not repaired soon it could sink and unleash a gigantic environmental disaster, polluting the turquoise blue waters along the Venezuelan coasts and several neighboring Caribbean nations, say maritime experts and critics of the Caracas government.

To exacerbate concerns, the Chavista regime has made no statements about its plans for the ship.

And he's

The situation suffered by the Nabarima ship is not new, but the risk of an imminent capsize has raised all the alarms.

Recent photos of the boat show how, day by day, it

Oil workers opposed to the government, such as Eudis Girot, director of the Unitary Federation of Oil Workers of Venezuela, have launched a campaign for President Nicolás Maduro to pay attention to the situation.

"I invite the President of the Republic to get on a helicopter, to go to Nabarima, to do an inspection himself," Girot said in a video posted on the internet a few days ago.

He also published three photographs of what he claims is the ship's engine room flooded.

said.

The ship was used as a stationary platform anchored in the Gulf of Paria.

Photo EFE

The Venezuelan-flagged Nabarima is a 264-meter-long (long) vessel that is believed to be filled almost to its maximum capacity with 1.4 million barrels of crude, an amount almost five times greater than that spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

The ship was used

anchored in the Gulf of Paria with the aim of helping the export of Venezuelan oil.

But it was left inactive after the recent collapse in world energy demand due to the pandemic and the White House sanctions against the Maduro government, which have scared away potential buyers of the heavy crude that Venezuela produces.

Critics of the deteriorating state oil company point out that the double-hulled vessel - built in 2005 by South Korea's Samsung for ConocoPhillips -

and mismanagement of Chavismo that have bankrupted the oil industry, which for decades brought prosperity to the country.

Venezuela, once an oil paradise, today receives

that it obtained in the past from the sale of its infinite black gold.

The crisis is such that Maduro recently broke the silence on the country's income and admitted that Caracas has stopped receiving 65,000 million dollars since 2014, when poverty became law.

The context is an economy 90% smaller than seven years ago, an 82% devaluation under the pandemic, accumulated inflation that already exceeds 1,000% and corruption and terrible administration as pivots of the country's collapse.

Caracas, which exported

, said legislator Angel Alvarado of Parliament's Finance committee.

"That ship would not be in this state were it not for negligence and stupidity," said Russ Dalle, director of Caracas Capital Markets.

"That ship would not be in this state if it were

" said Russ Dalle, director of Caracas Capital Markets, a company that closely monitors Venezuela's maritime industry.

An industry executive, who spoke to The Associated Press news agency with reservation of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the lack of maintenance damaged valves in the ballast system used to stabilize the ship.

Currently, the ship has a dangerous tilt of more than 5 degrees to its right side, said the executive.

Maritime tracking data indicates that

also

, right to the waterline, an indication of excess weight.

A possible spill in the shallow sea that Venezuela shares with Trinidad and Tobago

.

The situation has caused alarm in Trinidad and the nearby Dutch islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Guyana media reported that the Civil Defense Commission of that country remains alert to the situation, together with the Executive of Trinidad and Tobago and now with the support of CDEMA, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Authority, which joined the Trinidadian government in monitoring a possible spill.

To avoid an environmental disaster, PDVSA

.

But US sanctions that prohibit US agencies from doing business with Venezuela could deter many foreign companies from getting involved in the operation.

However, Italian oil company ENI, which operates the Petrosucre joint venture as a minority partner with PDVSA, said in a statement that there is currently no risk of an oil spill.

and is working with PDVSA to unload the oil from Nabarima, ENI said.

This is the second recent maritime emergency for Venezuela after a spill at the El Palito refinery, which occurred last August, which covered a 15-kilometer stretch of pristine beaches in the Caribbean with oil, a few hours away from the capital. Caracas.

Source: AP, AFP, EFE and Clarín

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