THE Government is closer to finding the owners of the Gulfstream barge which caused a massive oil spill when it sank off Cove Estate in Tobago last month.

This from Energy Minister Stuart Young while speaking yesterday at the Magdalena Grand Resort at Lowlands during the launch of the public CNG station for Tobago.

The station will be located at the Cove.

“And just to remind people that this was something that had absolutely nothing to do with us in Tobago or in Trinidad, and the owners of the vessel seemed to have disappeared off the planet. But we’re still tracing them and tracking them. I got an update from the Ministry of Works and Transport (Monday) that we’re in hot pursuit to find out about the ownership of this vessel,” Young said.

He also spoke of the collaborative efforts between the Tobago House of Assembly and Central Government, to treating with the oil spill, which was first observed on February 7.

“What you saw once again is the workings of the THA along with Central Government, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, working with TEMA and THA and a host of others, Heritage, etc,” Young said, noting that the oil spill has been contained.

“Fortunately we were able to contain the oil spill and now we are hard at work in removing the remaining hydrocarbons in the vessel. It shows the commitment once again to the island, our sister island of Tobago,” he said.

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, also speaking on the island’s oil recovery efforts, said: “It is welcoming news for the global community and certainly for our tourism product that even as we are cleaning up the oil spill, we are signalling to the world that we are going greener in our energy consumption.”