Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited has laid the responsibility for the provision of rescue divers at the site of the Pointe-a-Pierre diving tragedy squarely on the shoulders of LMCS Limited.
Four divers who were sucked into a 30-inch pipeline on February 25 on Berth Six while doing maintenance work lost their lives.
Paria was responding to questions from Guardian Media as public outrage into the deaths of divers Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry, Rishi Nagassar and Fyzal Kurban escalated over the last two weeks, culminating in Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley setting up a Commission of Enquiry (C0E) to probe the incident.
Guardian Media asked: Was it Paria’s responsibility to provide a shadow or backup diver/s for the men during the exercise?
Paria’s Communications Lead Nerissa Feveck responded: “What we can at this stage confirm is that all dive-related activities were the responsibility of LMCS whether shadow, backup, standby, rescue or otherwise.”
Questioned if this had been a condition of LMCS’s contract when they signed off on the job, Feveck did not answer.
Feveck was sent eight questions via email on Wednesday by Guardian Media seeking clarification on several issues including: If Paria had followed proper HSE practices? What was the number of serious and non-serious accidents reported to the company since it was incorporated in 2018? Why did the inactive 30-inch pipeline contain oil? Why were the divers sent to an inactive pipeline to work? and, Did the company do everything possible to save the divers?
The State-owned company remained mum on those questions.
Feveck stated that the tragic events “are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the relevant authorities” and it would, therefore, be “inappropriate for Paria to comment at this time.”
T&T’s lone commercial diving instructor Dr Glenn Cheddie shared a different view from Paria. He indicated that it was not the sole responsibility of LMCS to ensure the divers’ safety.
Cheddie said Paria must shoulder some of the responsibility in this tragic mishap. Cheddie, a former diver medic technician with the International Marine Contractors Association, added that the onus was on Paria to also have a safety spotlight on this dive-related activity.
“LMCS must have had that in place. However, Paria being a facility where they are accustomed to having contract divers on board, they are supposed to have a personal dive representative like a diving superintendent who would go onboard LMCS or whoever it is and ask them before they proceed with the job to see their dive documents.”
Cheddie, also a retiree of the Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI), was an offshore supervisor/instructor and a former member of the Divers Certification Board of Canada. The ADCI provides international standards for commercial diver training.
He said both Paria and LMCS had to follow proper standards which they failed to do, adding, “But more so, LMCS.”
Cheddie said both Paria and LMCS failed to adhere to proper checks and balances to ensure safety and preserve the lives of the divers.
Cheddie said when commercial divers are contracted to do underwater works, proper procedures must be followed by the contractor and client.
Asked if this was a requirement of all contractors to have standby divers for each diver that goes into the water, Cheddie said, “In all diving jobs…in all dive spreads the contractor must have a current certified dive supervisor with a standby diver.”
Apart from a commercial diver wearing the required “hat and hose equipment” which serves as the diver’s lifeline and provides a line of communication to the surface team, especially when doing “oil and gas installation,” they must be accompanied by a “tender diver.”
He said it was also imperative to have a certified dive supervisor close by the dive tender.
“The supervisor would speak to the diver through a communication system which is attached to an umbilical cord. The diver tender would listen to the communication between the supervisor and diver. So, if I have three divers, I would have three dive tenders and one supervisor.”
Cheddie said there must also be a standby diver who is trained to immediately jump in should any problem arise.
He said some contractors have been using “scuba commercial” divers which have been banned in the oil and gas industry.
“Five divers in the water at any point in time is ridiculous. That is the first thing. They were on scuba (gears) which is even more ridiculous. LMCS together with Paria would have to prove why they were using five divers. That will come out in the COE. Two or three divers would normally be used for that kind of job. I have never seen a dive spread where five divers are doing a job in a habitat like that.”
As a legal consultant and someone who specialises in sports law, Cheddie said everything went wrong with the divers.
“These divers were not using the correct equipment. Underwater welding and cutting is the most dangerous commercial diving job there is.”
He called on the Government to audit diving companies so they can comply with proper procedures and practices. Cheddie said if called upon to testify in the CoE, he will do so because he is about saving lives.
