Former Minister Questions – How Much Fuel Oil Was in Tank 70 Prior to Spill?
Tank 70 at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery has a diameter of 42.67 meters and a height of 16.76 meters. This gives it a capacity of 150,000 barrels. If, for example, the tank was 20% filled it would contain a volume of 30,000 barrels of fuel oil.
What was the level of the fuel oil in the tank just before the rupture? Given the location of the rupture ( at the base of the tank) most of the contents of the tank would have been spilled. How much of this fuel oil entered the sea and how much fuel oil was contained in the refinery?
Additionally, Petrotrin must also say why the tender process for the installation of bund walls was stopped. In August 2015, Petrotrin went out for tender for the installation of bund walls for high risk storage tanks. Prior to this, the designs for bund walls for these high risk tanks were completed. One of the identified high risk tanks was Tank 70.
Eleven proposals were received from contractors and four met the technical requirement and were recommended for advancement to the financial stage of evaluation. It was at that time the process was stopped. Is this a case of “penny wise and pound foolish”? Petrotrin must say why this process was stopped and why there is no bund wall around Tank 70.
The leadership of Petrotrin and the Ministry of Energy have been both silent and invisible on this.