(Trinidad Express) There was tension on the high seas yesterday as Venezuela’s police, La Guardia Nacional, boarded a Petrotrin oil rig to determine whether it was illegally operating in the Venezuelan oil zone.
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine, speaking to the Express by phone, confirmed that the Venezuelan authorities did stop the rig’s operations to verify that territorial borders were not being crossed.
The rig, said Ramnarine, is owned by a company called Well Services which does drilling for Petrotrin.
“After spending some time on the rig they then left…right now we are investigating the matter and assembling all the facts before we make any statements,” said Ramnarine.
He said the rig was operating in the South West Soldado field within the Trinmar acreage, which is very close to the Venezuelan border.
Ramnarine said the relevant authorities were called in to probe the matter including the Coast Guard, Chief of Defence Staff Kenrick Maharaj, Petrotrin, and the Foreign Affairs Minister among others.
Petrotrin president Khalid Hassanali said yesterday that Petrotrin has been drilling in that area for some time.
“It is in Trinidad waters.Yes they (Guardia Nacional) did board this morning…the geographic coordinates were checked, they left, nobody was harmed,” he said.
“We’re having diplomatic interventions to make sure that everything is fine to ensure that this does not happen again,” he added.
A release from Petrotrin later stated that at 10.45 a.m. yesterday, a sea-going vessel which identified itself as the Venezuelan Coast Guard, radioed personnel working on Rig 110 in Petrotrin’s offshore Soldado Field, and claimed that the rig was operating in Venezuelan waters.
“Petrotrin personnel provided the necessary geographical coordinates which confirmed that the rig was indeed operating lawfully, well within the maritime borders of Trinidad and Tobago. The Venezuelan vessel therefore departed without further delay,” stated the release.
It stated further that Petrotrin security patrols visited the scene, and the Trinidad and Tobago Police and Coast Guard were immediately informed.
According to the release, since 2004 Petrotrin has been compliant with the mandatory International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, an amendment to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention (1974/1988), which has outlined detailed security arrangements for ships and ports operating internationally.
“Petrotrin employees as well as the national community can therefore be assured that the company has put in place all the necessary security measures to safeguard the lives and well- being of our employees operating in our marine fields,” stated the release.
However, Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget told the Express that the union was not satisfied with the level of security and has called for a meeting with the authorities to discuss the matter.
Roget noted that last year there was incident where nationals were under threat from Venezuelan authorities.
In May last year Roget threatened shutdown of operations at Trinidad Marine Ltd (Trinmar) if the Venezuelan Guardia Nacional attacked this country’s nationals in Trinidad and Tobago waters again.
The threat came after members of the Guardia Nacional chased Trinidad and Tobago fishermen at sea to within this country’s maritime boundaries and shot at them.
Roget said at that time he held discussions with former energy minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and former foreign affairs minister Suruj Rambachan and “we requested and demanded that the security be stepped up to ensure workers’ safety.”
“Based on the reports today we are calling for some top level meetings so that we can continue to work and maintain safety,” he added.
This, said Roget, has to be done at three levels—Petrotrin must ensure its workers are safe by beefing up security, this country’s Coast Guard must ensure that our territorial waters are well manned and citizens are not under threat, and there must be interventions by the Ministries of Energy and Foreign Affairs at a diplomatic level to have dialogue with the Venezuelan authorities to ensure clear lines of demarcation are observed.
