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Trinidad federal government verifies fuel oil is dripping off Tobago's coast

Trinidad and Tobago's federal government on Friday validated the refined item dripping from a barge that struck a reef and reversed off the coast of Tobago was tested and figured out to be a kind of fuel oil.

The leak, which stays unplugged and is spreading to the Caribbean Sea threatening several countries' coasts, was initially found by Trinidad's Coast Guard on Feb. 7 after a barge hauled by a tugboat capsized near Tobago's coast.

Analyses of the hydrocarbon discharge gathered in Tobago suggests that the samples are particular of a fine-tuned oil, Trinidad's energy ministry said in a release, characterizing it as intermediate fuel oil.

Intermediate fuel oil can be used as a bunker fuel to power combustion engines.

The speed at which the fuel is flowing from the barge has slowed substantially, Allan Stewart, the head of Tobago's. emergency situation department, informed .

The fuel has been leaking for more than three weeks and has. stained Tobago's shoreline, impacting fishing and tourist, and. has entered the waters off Grenada.

We are striving to ensure the hydrocarbons do not get. to the more sensitive southwest part of the island, where there. are the popular tourist beaches, Stewart added.

Containment booms are so far holding the spill. Tobago has. been utilizing skimmers and other equipment to mop-up the fuel,. according to Stewart.

The barge carried as much as 35,000 barrels of fuel oil,. Tobago officials have actually stated.

The ship cruised from Panama and it was bound for Guyana,. officials have actually said. However keeping an eye on service TankerTrackers.com. and investigative news outlet Bellingcat stated after evaluating. satellite images that the vessels were near Venezuela's shore. days before the spill was initially reported in Tobago.

Images found by Bellingcat reveals that the barge began. dripping oil as early as February 3, instantly after leaving. ( Venezuela's) Pozuelos Bay, which it appears to have capsized. by the morning of February 6, it said today.

Venezuela has actually rejected that the barge originated from the. Bolivarian Republic.