By Prior Beharry
FIVE divers are sucked into an underwater line of the Paria Fuel Trading Company at Pointe-A-Pierre on Friday afternoon.
Two people close to the incident confirmed that it occurred at the #66 Sea Line used to pump crude oil from ships in the Gulf of Paria to Paria.
One source said that five divers were working on the underwater line when they saw a “vortex” that sucked in the five divers around 3 pm.
AZPNews.com was told that one of the divers was rescued and taken to hospital.
An industry source said for such a large suction to be created a pump had to be turned on.
That line at Berth 6 is used to pump crude oil that is bought by Paria since state-owned Petrotrin was closed down. Paria imports refined fuel to supply Trinidad and Tobago.
In a release Friday, Paria confirmed the incident saying that the divers from private contractor LMCS were conducting an underwater maintenance exercise on the line.
It stated, “During the exercise, an incident occurred which resulted in the loss of sight of the five-member team who were being monitored from shore.”
Paria stated that the cause and extent are yet to be determined.
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries did not reply to a WhatsApp message sent to his cellphone on Friday evening.
Contacted last night, the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Chief Education and Research Officer Ozzi Warwick said he was not aware of the incident but noted that once a trade union is removed from a company standards could drop.
He said, “The value of having a trade union in an industry is to ensure that there were health and safety standards and we also ensure transparency and accountability.”
Two people who worked at the now-closed Petrotrin refinery said that Sea Line #66 had undergone an ultrasound when the company was functioning and it was discovered that the walls of the lines were thinning.
Sources said that Coast Guard was on the scene.
A worker at the scene told Progressive Empowerment Party political leader Phillip Edward Alexander in a Facebook live on Friday that they were awaiting approval to go back for the four divers stuck in the line.
He said the diver who was rescued said there was another diver who was close and could have been taken out but Paria officials said they were waiting for approval.
