Fears of an oil-spill off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago
- Published
- comments
There are worries that a tanker off the Caribbean coast of South America containing over 55 million tonnes of crude oil could overturn.
The Venezuelan owned tanker - which was abandoned 20 months ago - is causing particular concern to Venezuela's neighbouring country, Trinidad and Tobago.
The tanker has been pictured looking unbalanced and the Trinidad government believes it could spill up to 1.3 million barrels of oil into the ocean, causing a major ecological disaster.
The tanker was abandoned by a Venezuelan oil company because of a financial dispute with American President, Donald Trump.
A Trinidadian environmental group visited the vessel to find it slanted slightly on its side
The Trump administration stopped buying oil from Venezuela because it believed the country's President, Nicolás Maduro, shouldn't be in power.
Venezuela relies on selling oil to other countries for a lot of it's money. Oil makes up almost all of the country's export earnings.
The company in charge of the tanker stopped drilling for oil when the restrictions were brought in and abandoned the ship off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago's government is sending out a team to inspect the boat, following concerns that it could spill its contents.
Oil spillages are often very bad for the environment. They can cause harm to wildlife for years after they have happened and tend to be very difficult to clean up.
The process for cleaning up oil spills can sometimes cause as much damage as the original spillage.
Their inspection follows the campaign of a Trinidadian environmental group called Fishermen and Friends of the Sea who have been out to take photographs of the tanker.
Gary Aboud, from the organisation, said at least 50,000 Trinidadian fishermen who depend on the area for their livelihood would be affected if the oil spilled into the sea.
The Venezuelan company who own the tanker said in September that it remains stable.
A BP owned oil rig caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, causing one of the biggest oil spills of all time
Oil spills are really dangerous and can cause lots of damage to ocean wildlife.
A major oil spill from a British Petroleum (BP) owned oil rig released over 130 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
According to the Centre for Biological Diversity, the oil spill killed over 82,000 birds, 25,900 marine mammals, 6,000 sea turtles and tens of thousands of fish.
- Published11 August 2020
- Published2 May 2019
- Published4 June 2020
