En­er­gy Min­is­ter Roodal Mooni­lal says there is no pol­i­cy re­quir­ing the Min­istry of En­er­gy to is­sue pub­lic state­ments on small oil spills, as he de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of an off­shore spill dis­closed on­ly af­ter Venezuela is­sued a com­mu­niqué over the week­end.

Mooni­lal was re­spond­ing in Par­lia­ment to­day to an ur­gent ques­tion from for­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion MP Stu­art Young con­cern­ing the May 1 oil spill which the Gov­ern­ment pub­licly ac­knowl­edged on May 10.

Young asked whether Mooni­lal had con­tact­ed Venezuela’s En­er­gy Min­is­ter to pro­vide de­tails on the spill, which Venezue­lan au­thor­i­ties claimed neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed parts of that coun­try’s coast­line.