The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

LAST week’s revelation of an oil theft ring responsible for the 70,000 gallon fuel leak in Eleuthera has prompted a comprehensive BEC probe of every tank in the country, chairman Leslie Miller said yesterday.

He attributed the theft ring and resulting spill to “gross negligence” on the part of the Bahamas Electricity Corporation and revealed the incident will cost the corporation around $350,000.

The spill was discovered around 9am last Tuesday in the area of a disused fuel storage tank farm for the Rock Sound, Eleuthera power station.

Mr Miller said yesterday BEC is expecting to recover “about 90 per cent” of the 70,000 gallon spill and the reported theft ring is being investigated by police as well as BEC.

“That was just gross negligence on the part of BEC. Gross negligence. Because here you have a new tank that is being put in place – a 200,000 gallon tank – and here you have the old tank still in place and still connected,” he said.

“Now you figure it out – why would you have the old tank connected to the same pipeline when you already completed new tanks? Those old tanks were decommissioned, they never should have been connected, and it’s the fault of the contractor as well as BEC that the incident took place.”

He said a full review of “every single” tank will now have to be done and BEC will “have to beef up security” to ensure the incident is not repeated.

“Everything what BEC has, now has to be looked at – all apparatus on every Family Island,” Mr Miller said.

When asked exactly how many tanks – both in operation and not – are in the country, he said: “Just think of all the Family Islands; we have and then multiply that by about four. On Nassau, too. I’m sure tests are going to go on everything.

“Thieves don’t stop. You think thieves will only steal from Eleuthera? Please. They don’t take breaks, they don’t take vacation, and they hardly sleep, they just keep thieving.”

On Friday, Mr Miller said the fuel spilled into an acre of land after a supply line from BEC’s new holding tank was diverted to one of its decommissioned tanks at the rear of the airport in Rock Sound.

From these old tanks, he said, persons were filling up their own tanks and possibly reselling the corporation’s fuel.

“This is totally deliberate and it has been ongoing for some time it appears. The total amount of fuel in the old tanks was some 30,000 gallons. Someone was running their own fuel station off BEC,” he said.

“This is systematic theft. There are supply lines running from the old decommissioned tank to the new 200,000 gallon one, and it’s like someone left the faucet on.”