[UPDATED] OWTU: NP explosion was preventable

The Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) has accused National Petroleum (NP) of covering up details of what led to Friday’s explosion at its Port of Spain compound.

In a press conference on Monday morning, OWTU president general Ancel Roget told the media the explosion could have been avoided if proper health and safety policies had been developed.

He said: “What occurred was preventable. We are of the view, based on our interaction with NP current management, that the issue of health and safety for the workers comes second and third place when it comes to the operation of NP, and that is unfortunate.”

He said the union was suspicious of the way NP cleaned up the site of the explosion before the union was given a chance to assess the scene.

"This explosion had the potential not only to injure or kill those workers, but it carried the potential to create an explosion which would have been regrettable for many months.”

OWTU sent a letter to OSH and NP officials on Friday and Saturday and said up to Monday morning it had not received a response. Roget promised to “raise hell” if NP failed to respond by the end of this week.

When issues surrounding health and safety and conditions of NP vehicles are raised by the union Roget said the complaints are “shrouded with public relations to paint the union as a monster.”

He called for a thorough investigation and for someone to be held accountable for the incident.

“Somebody has to be held accountable for all of those procedures that would have led to the explosion…We are not satisfied NP’s management is observing strict requirement of health and safety of all of the workers. This management is only of lip service and it trying to portray everything is ok at NP and normalcy has been restored. ”

Three NP employees were injured when a tank exploded while they were emptying it. Since then one has been discharged and two remain hospitalised.

In a report on Friday, police said two contractors were pumping fuel out of the Number Four tank at around 11.30 am when there was an explosion. The tank, which contained residual amounts of super fuel, caught fire.

On Friday, NP's acting CEO John Gormandy told reporters the tank, at the southern end of its Sea Lots compound, was "practically empty" when it exploded. NP is continuing investigations.

Though the company has given the assurance that the situation was under control, Roget said he quite comfortable enough has been done to convince him this is so.

“The union isn’t convinced that everything is ok. That they would have gone about and clean up the accident site, they comprised an investigation that will take place sometime forward to hide something that we are not sure of at this point in time.

“We have not been involved in any joint investigating committee on what occurred on Friday and the requirement of both collective agreement between OWTU and Np management, it is a requirement that there ought to have a joint investigation and that hasn’t occurred.”

He said the union will disregard any final investigation report by NP until the union has the opportunity to conduct some of its own quarries.

Attempts to contact the communications manager at NP Denise Caesar on Monday evening were unsuccessful.