Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal told reporters this week that the May 1 oil spill in the Gulf of Paria was contained within Trinidad and Tobago waters and posed no threat to Venezuela’s environment, addressing speculation that the incident might escalate into a cross-border environmental dispute at a particularly sensitive moment in the Caribbean’s relationship with Caracas.
The spill itself was contained, according to government accounts carried by TV6, with cleanup crews mobilising within the first 48 hours and ongoing monitoring continuing into the second week. The Gulf of Paria — the body of water between Trinidad’s western coast and the Venezuelan mainland — sits in a contested geopolitical space where any environmental incident can be weaponised diplomatically. Caracas has not commented publicly on the spill, but the Moonilal statement is positioned as a pre-emptive denial of any future claim.
For the broader picture, the spill underscores why Persad-Bissessar’s government has been recalibrating its energy posture in real time. Trinidad remains the Caribbean’s second-largest natural gas producer, and offshore activity in the Gulf of Paria is critical to both production and to shipping logistics for the wider regional economy. The incident is one more pressure point on a sector facing declining gas production, an ageing infrastructure base, and an externally watching environmental community.
Source: TV6 News; Trinidad Guardian, May 12, 2026.