The Ministry of Natural Resources wishes to address yet another outrageously deceptive publication by the Kaieteur News. In a piece headlined, “Oil spill will hit Guyana’s shores before capping stack arrives to plug leak,” devious reporting is taken to new heights.
The April 6 article references the Hammerhead Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), stating that an oil spill could reach Region One in as little as a day while the capping stack (an equipment used to cap or plug a well blowout) would take several days to be deployed.
Let’s examine the facts. According to the EIA, stochastic models predicted oiling of the Guyana shoreline for the Most Credible and Maximum Worst Case Discharge (WCD) scenarios. For the June to November season, the Most Credible WCD scenario shows that there is a 5 to 10 percent chance of oil reaching the Region 1 shoreline within 5 to 15 days.
For the Maximum WCD scenario, during the December to May season, the model predicted there is a 5 to 70 percent chance of oil reaching the coast of Region One within 1 to 10 days.
Here is the most crucial part of the EIA that Kaieteur News did not publish, “This stochastic modeling does not account for any oil spill response (e.g., aerial, vessel, or subsea dispersant application; offshore containment and recovery; or source control operations), so any preventive measures taken to keep oil from reaching the coast during a response would reduce the potential of shoreline oiling in Guyana below the percentages cited above.”