FSO Nabarima
FSO Nabarima is a floating storage and offloading vessel that is permanently moored offshore of Venezuela at the Corocoro oil field in the Gulf of Paria, located between Venezuela and the island of Trinidad. After production at Corocoro ceased in 2019 following United States sanctions on the Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and following years of neglect, Nabarima fell into a state of disrepair, and was reported in 2020 to be at risk of spilling her cargo of about 1.3 million barrels of crude oil. Description FSO Nabarima is a floating storage and offloading vessel, without motors, that is permanently moored offshore of Venezuela at the Corocoro oil field in the Gulf of Paria and whose main purpose was to receive the petroleum produced by the mixed company Petrowarao, in Delta Amacuro state. Nabarima used to be held with nine anchors and is connected to a long pipeline system. Operations Nabarima, with a capacity of 1.4 million barrels of oil, was built in 2005 by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea for ConocoPhillips, which at the time operated the Corocoro field. In 2007, Hugo Chávez expropriated ConocoPhillips' assets in Venezuela and the country seized control of Corocoro and Nabarima, which passed into the control of Petrosucre, a joint venture of PDVSA, which owns 74%, and Italian oil company Eni, which owns the remaining 26%. In early 2019, Petrosucre shut down production at Corocoro after the United States placed sanctions on PDVSA that prevented Petrosucre from exporting oil to Citgo, which had previously purchased Corocoro oil. After years of neglect, Nabarima fell into a state of disrepair. Russ Dallen, head of Caracas Capital Markets, who closely tracks Venezuela’s maritime industry, said that the ship “should not be in this shape except for neglect and stupidity.” An industry executive, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the lack of maintenance appeared to have damaged valves in the ballast system used to stabilise the ship. Shutdown Following the Corocoro shutdown, Nabarima was abandoned with about 1.3 million barrels of crude aboard. For months, opposition leaders and petroleum union leaders warned that the tanker was listing and at risk of sinking and causing a significant environmental disaster. Government spokespeople denied this. Nabarima is a double-hulled tanker, which offers some security. According to complaints made by PDVSA workers, its main process, control, auxiliary and security equipment was inoperative due to "lack of maintenance and management incompetence", the tanker being operated with a skeleton crew, although designed to be operated by 80 workers. In July 2020 Nabarima began listing to starboard, followed by a leak into her engine room the following month that failed bilge pumps were unable to pump out. According to Eudis Girot, the leader of the Unitary Federation of Petroleum Workers of Venezuela, there was about of water in the lower decks of Nabarima by early September and the Associated Press reported that she continued to list about 5 degrees to