CARACAS – In an official statement addressed to the global community released late Saturday, Venezuela has formally alleged that an oil spill originating in neighboring Trinidad and Tobago has left significant irreversible environmental harm across coastal regions of at least two of its states and a shared gulf in the Caribbean.
Initial environmental assessments carried out by Venezuelan authorities confirm that the spill has created severe ecological risks for natural habitats in Sucre, Delta Amacuro, and the Gulf of Paria, the country’s Foreign Ministry confirmed. The contamination is already endangering critical mangrove forests, protected wetland ecosystems, and the broader environmental equilibrium that supports biodiversity and local livelihoods across the region, according to the statement.
Venezuela has not yet released key details about the timeline of the first detection of the spill, nor has it provided an official estimate of the total volume of oil that leaked into the water. As of Monday, the government of Trinidad and Tobago has not issued any public comment, confirmation, or denial regarding Venezuela’s claims of the spill originating from its territory.
In addition to requesting full transparency about the incident, including details of any containment and mitigation measures already in place, Venezuela is demanding formal reparations for the environmental damage in line with established international environmental law, the official statement added.
The Gulf of Paria, a semi-enclosed inland sea positioned south of Trinidad and along Venezuela’s eastern coastline, is shared jointly between the two nations. The two countries signed a formal border delimitation treaty in the 1990s that laid out clear terms for the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbon reserves along the shared maritime boundary.
According to data from Trinidad and Tobago’s own Ministry of Energy, the island nation is one of the largest energy producers in the Caribbean, with extensive oil and gas exploration operations across both onshore territory and shallow offshore waters, including in areas adjacent to the Gulf of Paria.