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Trinidad federal government employs 2 firms to recuperate sunken oil barge

Trinidad and Tobago has hired two removal and salvage companies to help clean up an continuous oil spill off Tobago and restore the leaking barge, the nation's Ministry of Energy stated on Tuesday.

It has been practically 2 weeks considering that the oil spill was found off Tobago's Atlantic coast after a barge ran aground on a reef. The spill has gotten in the Caribbean Sea, threatening close by Venezuela and Grenada.

A global partnership comprised of T&T Salvage LLC and QT Environmental Inc, both topic professionals and certified oil spill removal companies, has been engaged on-water oil recovery, study, and prepares to conduct freight lightering and wreck removal, the ministry said.

The barge, which was being pulled by a pull boat when it went aground, brought as much as 35,000 barrels of fuel oil, Tobago authorities have said. The tug and its operator have actually not been disclosed.

Numerous beach and golf resorts in Tobago popular with foreign travelers have actually closed access to the ocean. The neighboring Scarborough cruise ship port is being secured from the spill by containment booms.

Trinidad and Tobago's Energy Minister Stuart Young on Friday informed Parliament the government was attempting to identify the owners of the barge and has actually sent diplomatic notes to the governments of Panama, Aruba and Guyana. The federal government thinks the barge was being pulled from Panama to Guyana through Aruba when it sank.