Trinidad Government Hires Two Firms to Recover Sunken Oil Barge

• Trinidad and Tobago has hired two remediation and salvage firms to help clean up an ongoing oil spill off Tobago and salvage the leaking barge, the country's Ministry of Energy said this week.
• It has been almost two weeks since the oil spill was first discovered off Tobago's Atlantic coast after a barge ran aground on a reef. The spill has entered the Caribbean Sea, threatening nearby Venezuela and Grenada.
• "An international partnership comprised of T&T Salvage LLC and QT Environmental Inc, both subject matter experts and licensed oil spill removal organizations, has been engaged on-water oil recovery, survey, and plans to conduct cargo lightering and wreck removal," the ministry said.
• Tobago officials stated that the barge, which was being towed by a tug boat when it went aground, carried as much as 35,000 barrels of fuel oil.
• Several beach and golf resorts in Tobago popular with foreign tourists have closed access to the ocean. The nearby Scarborough cruise ship port is also being protected from the spill by containment booms.

(Source: Reuters)