One diver has been transferred to a decompression chamber in La Brea on Saturday morning, while the search continues for four other divers who went missing Friday night during an underwater project at a berth operated by Paria Trading Co Ltd in Pointe-a-Pierre.
On Saturday, Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs Stuart Young, Paria general manager Mushtaq Mohammed and other officials met with the relatives of the missing men in Pointe-a-Pierre.
Young said, “I don’t want anybody being distracted. The job at hand now has to be to find your family members. That is where the focus has to be and whatever resources have to be used, we will be using those resources.
“I am very, very sorry on behalf and on the behalf of everybody else that this is what we are facing. We are doing everything we possibly can to get to them.”
He told the families that Paria and the ministry cannot give any guarantees and assurances about the rescue mission. It has been over 24 hours since the men went missing. They have been identified as Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr and Yuseph Henry. The survivor is Christopher Boodram.
Young met with the families on Saturday after his return Friday night from Doha, Qatar where TT participated in the conference of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
Mushtaq said the incident occurred around 2.30 pm on Friday and since then Paria has been using its resources and working with the Coast Guard to save the men.
“We brought in specialist contractors with a variety of equipment including cameras and things that could actually fall into the pipe to locate the divers.
“As we stand today, we have begun a pumping exercise to pump out of that pipeline things that are there so we can continue operations. That pumping period is about one hour and a half or two hours. After we get those liquids out, we would have the cameras go back in and try to locate where exactly these guys are.”
The men worked for contracting company LMCS Ltd, based in San Fernando, which provides services such as project management, engineering design, procurement and construction services, inclusive of diving-related underwater services and marine logistics support. The owner of the company, Kazim Ali’s son, was among the missing divers.
Paria, in a media statement issued around 9 pm on Friday, said five employees of LMCS Ltd, a private contractor, were conducting an underwater maintenance exercise at No 36 Sealine riser, berth six, when “an incident occurred.”
It resulted in “the loss of sight” of the five-member team who were being monitored from the shore.
The dive team was installing a riser to a 36-inch pipe used to get oil out, when a valve either was opened or blew causing a vacuum pulling in the team.
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