VENEZUELA: Crude spills on Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo hurt fishing industry, get tepid response from government

Record ID: 343511

  • Title: VENEZUELA: Crude spills on Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo hurt fishing industry, get tepid response from government
  • Date: 14th July 2010
  • Summary: CHILD SLEEPING ON NET
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA43WD0PZIGI1NCZHNMP8A2BR03
  • Story Text: The world may be focused on the much bigger oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo has suffered decades of smaller leaks that have contaminated the environment, affected local industries and even led to the idling of several U.S.-bound tankers while crude was scrubbed off their hulls.
    Western Zulia state, where Lake Maracaibo is located, produces 800,000 bpd of Venezuela's 2.9 million bpd output, according to the government.
    But the area has been blighted in recent weeks by several leaks from the tangle of antiquated pipes, pumps and other oil installations that crisscross the lake, one of the oldest energy hubs in the Latin American OPEC member.
    State oil company PDVSA blames the latest leaks on thieves vandalizing facilities, and says last week it recovered a large amount of equipment stolen from the lake.
    Meanwhile, fishermen who live on the shores are concerned about when they will be able to get back to work.
    Eliseo Fermin, the head of the legislative council in Zulia, said he is going to bat for the fishermen.
    "We are filing suit so these people can be reimbursed, to pay for new nets, to fix boats and their motors and to maintain their families while they can't fish. There are 13,000 poor families in the town that live off fishing on the shores of the lake and can't fish," Fermin said.
    The latest spills were first detected early in June, but were initially denied by PDVSA. It later acknowledged there was a problem after local media broadcast images of the leaks. It has now hired hundreds of fishermen for cleanup operations.
    Fermin estimated that slicks from the latest leaks were now affecting 8 percent of the surface of the lake while Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez continues downplaying the spills, saying they amount to a relatively small eight barrels per day.
    Fisherman Alexis Galue said government estimates aside, his livelihood has been badly affected.
    "Now the problem with the oil is that no one can work because everything is covered in oil. The oil contaminates the lake. The fish we catch are already almost dead. When we catch them they are already contaminated," he said has he prepared for clean-up efforts.
    Instead of pulling in nets full of fish, local fishermen dive from their boats and minutes later return to the beach, arms loaded with piles of sticky garbage coated black with crude oil.
    PDVSA has employed clean-up teams, whose members each receive 100 bolivars a day for their work (about $23). They are pulling in truckloads of contaminated trash everyday, but many blame the national government for neglect, saying the situation in Maracaibo has deteriorated since President Hugo Chavez's government nationalized 76 oil service companies in the area last year.
    Local officials have demanded the Ramirez and the environment minister resign over the spills.
    Maximo Vega, another local fisherman, said his hands and feet were irritated from contact with the oil.
    "The nets fill up with oil. When we go to grab the fish our hands get covered with oil. That's why my hands are like this," Vega said.
    For now, in the absence of any concrete plans to stop further leaks, some are making money with the crews trying to decontaminate the shores.
    On the eastern shores of the lake, Luis Alberto Quiroz and fellow workers have been reduced to collecting crabs, which he said have been able to survive the pollution better than fish, although some crabs have succumbed to the oil as well.
    "It's a big loss. Sometimes we have to throw the crabs back because they are full of oil," Quiroz said.
    Like the crabs, mangrove swamps on the lake's edges are also coated. Jutting from the oil-sheened water, which sometimes gives off a rotten smell, are the rusted remains of oil equipment from years gone by.
    Ramirez concedes that the situation in Lake Maracaibo is "chronic", with abandoned machinery and thousands of miles of pipelines snaked "like spaghetti" on its bed and has said PDVSA is "rethinking" its strategy for Maracaibo production.
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