There is growing concern that an oil tanker carrying millions of gallons of oil could carry its load into the sea between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago, causing ecological catastrophe.
The flag of Venezuela has been in the Gulf of Peria since last January, when the U.S. imposed sanctions on Venezuela. Made it illegal for companies operating in to trade with the country’s government oil company.
The energy and foreign ministers of both Trinidad and Tobago told the Miami Herald that a team would visit the ship on Tuesday. Trinidad officials were not immediately available for comment.
Nabrima is carrying 1.3 million barrels of crude oil, according to Venezuelan politicians and green activist groups. With a million million gallons of oil, the shipwreck could cause an ecological disaster: the 1989 Exxon Valdex spill, in one of the worst oil spills, covered 11 million gallons twice the size of Rhode Island. .
Venezuela has previously said the ship is safe, but environmental activists and politicians say new pictures show it is tilted at an increased rate.
Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, a Trinidadian environmental group representing 50,000 people in the local fishing industry, have called for a national crisis. The group visited the ship by boat on Friday and posted a video in which Nabarima was leaning and suspended by the anchor chain.
Gary Aboud, the group’s corporate secretary, said in the video: “If something goes wrong, if we have bad weather, there are many circumstances that could flood the vessel, and then we have no shelter.”
Nabarima is jointly owned by Venezuelan state oil company Petrolos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Italian oil giant i Ni.
PDVSA could not be immediately reached for comment. NBC News contacted Annie for comment.
Venezuelan lawmakers, who have criticized President Nicolas Maduro, have called on the country’s government to “immediately remove the oil from the disaster” to avoid disaster, saying the risk has “increased alarmingly.”
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Maria Gabriela Hernandez del Castillo, president of the legislature’s environment commission, said in a press release that, as a result of the weight and tide, the ship is considered to be more biased (listed) than reported last August.
The U.S. embassies in Trinidad and Tobago expressed its concern over the ship in a statement on Friday, warning that a move could “negatively affect not only the people of Venezuela but also nearby countries.”
NBC News has contacted the Trinidad and Tobago government for comment.
Venezuela has previously denied any problems with Nabarima. In September, shfashore executive director of Venezuelan state oil company Pedro Figueira said on Twitter that Nabrima had “complied with environmental and operational standards.”
He later dismissed reports that the ship was unsafe as “untrue” and said that “despite alleged information by pseudo experts on the social network, it meets the required standards.”
