The Honourable Stuart Young has indicated that T&T will receive funds from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC).

The IOPC Funds are financed by contributions paid by entities that receive certain types of oil by sea transport. These contributions are based on the amount of oil received in the relevant calendar year, and cover expected claims, together with the costs of administering the funds.

The Minister expects the total clean-up effort to cost up to USD$20m. He indicated that he cannot say how much the fund will cover but the fund will cover reasonable expenses from the clean-up effort.

The Minister shared that Trinidad & Tobago joined the IOPC in 2001 and paid into the fund up until 2018 when the Petrotrin refinery was shut down. Since then, the government continued to report to the IOPC.

The Minister revealed that he led a delegation to the IOPC last week, where he presented to the executive committee. The committee ultimately decided that the fund would apply to this incident and immediately authorized the director to make payments of compensation in respect of claims arising from this incident. The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries will lead the charge in submitting claims for compensation from the fund.

He also said that he gave the assurance to the fund that the government will work with them to locate the owners of the vessels and those responsible.

The spill occurred when a vessel carrying hydrocarbons ran aground and overturned offshore Tobago in February 2024. To date, no one has taken responsibility for the vessel. A preliminary investigation found that the vessel was being tugged to nearby Guyana from Venezuela.

Several Energy Chamber members have assisted in the oil spill clean-up effort. The effort was led by Heritage Petroleum Company Limited and included the collaborative efforts of Oil Mop Environmental Services and Tiger Tanks Trinidad Limited.  Kaizen Environmental Services Ltd., through their association with Woodside Energy were also involved in the exercise.  Renaissance Energy also provided their resources and skills to assist in the clean-up effort, independently.

National Energy also provided marine vessel support and other logistics to the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries at the site of the oil spill.

The Minister indicated that service providers would be paid by the central government and the IOPC will reimburse expenses incurred as a result of the oil spill incident.