En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has de­fend­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s han­dling of the re­cent off­shore oil spill, stat­ing there is no pol­i­cy re­quir­ing the min­istry to is­sue pub­lic state­ments on mi­nor in­ci­dents.

Dr Mooni­lal came un­der crit­i­cism from the Op­po­si­tion and en­vi­ron­men­tal group Fish­er­men and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) af­ter the spill was dis­closed pub­licly on­ly af­ter Venezuela is­sued a com­mu­niqué on the mat­ter over the week­end.

The spill re­port­ed­ly oc­curred on May 1 but was not pub­licly ac­knowl­edged un­til May 10. How­ev­er, the min­is­ter de­scribed it as “a small spill.”