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CCNTV6
  • 2 weeks ago


Two separate oil leaks in South Trinidad have led to the relocation of one family in Fyzabad and further disruption to fishing for Fullerton fisherfolk.

In both incidents, Heritage Petroleum Company Limited dispatched clean up teams whose response and efforts were praised by those affected at both locations.

Our reporter Cindy Raghubar-Teekersingh went to both Fullerton Village, Cedros and Fyzabad on Friday, to bring us the details.





Transcript
00:00Seadruff's fishermen have been hit at double blow, first being told by Coast Guard officers
00:06to fish no more than two miles from shore, and now some are unable to fish at all, following
00:12oil presence at sea. Fishermen from Fullerton village Seadruff tell TV6 they first notice
00:20oil slicks on Wednesday morning.
00:30Most have anchored their pierogues and hope some amount of compensation will come soon,
00:49as the pre-existing U.S.-Venezuela tension already made work difficult.
00:54We really can't go further, how to work toward this thing with escalating there with Venezuela
01:00and Trinidad and U.S. So we're working in the shore right now, but this oil in now, we really
01:05can't work on all two in. So we're just waiting to see what's going on. Then Christmas right
01:09around the corner, I mean, this is where we have to live too.
01:11We have to make compensation too, because right now I tell it's poverty, which is why it didn't
01:16solve biscuits, sausage.
01:17On Friday, Heritage Petroleum personnel could be seen working on Fullerton Beach.
01:23Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Dr. Rudal Munilal says Heritage responded to reports
01:30of goblets of what appears to be hydrocarbons on the Fullerton shoreline. However, he says
01:36no loss of containment or leaks has occurred in the Heritage offshore operations over the
01:43past week. He confirmed that cleanup is ongoing, saying members of the community were hired as
01:49part of cleanup operations. Meanwhile, over in Massahood village, Faizabad, a family of six
01:56was temporarily relocated by Heritage following an oil leak in their front yard. 55-year-old carpenter,
02:04Vinesh Mahadev, says his wife noticed the oil bubbling to the surface around 10 a.m. He says they've
02:12lived here for over 40 years, and it's the first time they experienced this.
02:17Petrotrain, when Petrotrain was in Powhatic, they made me move out part of my fence and part
02:24of my place. So I didn't move. In fact, I didn't move. They showed me, they gave me some markers,
02:30and I moved. And knowing that now this happened here, but they tell me the line, they under the wall,
02:40they know. But I have no idea that because Petrotrain already, they bring their surveyors
02:45and tell me move. So I don't know what's going on right now. He says while they live close to the
02:51buried line, they always thought the lines were inactive. But seeing that's not the case,
02:57he has raised concerns. This line runs through a lot of people's places, a lot of people's house
03:02who didn't know about it and who now getting to know about it. So it might be kind of difficult
03:10for them to really move people, but I feel the best thing for them to do is relocate the line
03:16if they have space to relocate it. In a statement, Heritage says, quote,
03:22quote, a minor leak along a 12-inch trunk pipeline that partially runs under an unauthorized occupied
03:30structure was discovered and was plugged and clamped, end quote. As a precaution,
03:37they say they relocated the family while cleanup and restoration occurs.
03:43Cindy Raguba, Tika Singh, TV6 News.
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