Panama firm at centre of Tobago oil spill

Trinidad Guardian

2024, 03/03 Day  26

Bellingcat: Logan Williams, Thomas Bordeaux, with research contributions from Lotte van der Waal, Ethan Doyle, Mikael Hoffman and members of Bellingcat’s Discord community.
Guardian Media: Asha Javeed

On February 7, an oily substance began leaking from an overturned barge, clearly abandoned on a reef south of Cove, Tobago.

25 days since the accident, now contained by authorities in T&T,  it is  causing an environmental disaster through the Southern Caribbean Sea , extending to Bonaire.

The Guardian Media Investigations Desk  partnered with Bellingcat—a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in open-source research—to unravel  questions which remain:

1. 1. 1. Who are the owners of the barge?
      2. How did it come to be in T&T’s waters?
      3. Where was it headed? and
      4. Who will accept liability for the environmental disaster?

 Solo Creed
The incident   in Tobago  connected  Sierra Leone, Panama, Venezuela, Guyana,  Tanzania and Nigeria.

The Solo Creed  tugboat behind the oil spill offshore Tobago belonged to a director of a network of Panamanian companies transporting oil from Venezuela.

Registration documents were provided to Bellingcat and Guardian Media by the Zanzibar Maritime Authority (ZMA). Zanzibar is an archipelago of Tanzania.

The documents show the Solo Creed was owned by a director—Melissa Rona Gonzalez—of a Panama-based firm called Melaj Offshore Corporation when it was towing the Gulfstream barge on the ill-fated journey that led to the  oil spill.

Public data from the Panama corporate registry shows that Gonzalez is an officer of Melaj Offshore Corporation and that the power of attorney for Melaj belongs to Augustine Jackson aka Captain Austin Jackson

Jackson,  a businessman with operations in Panama, Guyana, Dubai, Bahamas and Nigeria, bears a Sierra Leone passport. In 2020, during the pandemic, he was interested in purchasing vessels from  Trinidad & Tobago  state company   Caribbean Dockyard and Engineering Services Limited  ( Caridoc ) but the acquisition was never completed.

Data also shows that several directors of Melaj, including Jackson and Gonzalez, share a directorship in three other companies: Innovation and Engineering Services, Inc; Milan Maritime Operations, SA; and Milan Shipping Enterprise Corporation.

Ownership
Bellingcat reported that the last known  image of the Solo Creed was posted by “MELAJ OFFSHORE CORP” on MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics platform, on December 24, 2023.

Ship registration documents provided by the ZMA show that the listed owner of the Solo Creed during the time of its disastrous journey was Melissa Rona Gonzalez.

ZMA confirmed the Provisional Certificate of Registry, which lists Gonzalez as the owner, is authentic. The period of registration includes the Solo Creed’s departure on December 30, 2023, until it abandoned the Gulfstream barge on or around February 6, 2024, as seen in satellite imagery. It expired last week on February 29.

Melaj’s relationship with Venezuela and Guyana.
Melaj and Jackson  have a chequered history in Guyana and Venezuela.

In March 2019, Reuters reported that Melaj had begun transporting oil for the  Venezuelan  SOC Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) after the USA applied sanctions to Venezuelan oil exports.

Two months before, in January 2019.. US sanctions have a far-reaching impact on the petroleum industry, due to the importance of the US banking system on the sale of oil, as over half of  world reserves are denominated in US dollars.

In 2016, Jackson was embroiled in a legal dispute with two Guyanese businessmen who filed an injunction against his firm over a payment dispute, according to Kaieteur News. The business partner named in this lawsuit, June Elwin, is Jackson’s mother-in-law, as confirmed by the Guyana voter roll.     Jackson countered in court that he had been compelled to “smuggle fuel across international borders into Guyana”, allegations one of the businessmen called “baseless”.

Later that year, 2016,   Venezuelan sailors  employed on his vessel, the MJ Pollux A,  alleged that he stranded them without food or pay.   Jackson contested their account.

A post on the website RipoffReports and on ShipSpotting by fuel industry trader, Moses Evelyn, alleges Jackson was involved in a PDVSA fuel shipping deal gone awry in Guyana in 2016. Evelyn confirmed he made the post and stands by his account.

The Solo Creed and Gulfstream are not the only ships owned by Jackson’s family businesses.   Data from the vessel ownership database Equasis shows that Melaj owns a ship named the Marilys AJ, which shares the same name as Jackson’s daughter.

Innovation and Engineering Services owns a vessel named the Mikayla AJ, and Milan Shipping Enterprise Corporation owns a vessel named the Edidiong AJ, formerly known as the Sea Endeavour.

Posts  by Jackson and confirmed by records from the Panama Maritime Authority connect him to another tugboat, Capt Milan.  Like the Solo Creed, these vessels transit between  Caribbean, Colombian and Venezuelan ports, and often  sail dark, with AIS tracking data disabled so  it is difficult to compile a complete record of their movements.

Abraham Olalekan
When contacted , Jackson confirmed his ownership of Melaj Offshore Corporation but denied any connection to the Solo Creed or Gulfstream. He pointed the team to a “Dr” Abraham Olalekan in Nigeria and provided his number. Both  refused to address why the ship was registered in the name of a Melaj director, Gonzalez.

Olalekan  produced no evidence of purchasing the Solo Creed as he claimed, but  provided an ostensible bill of sale for the Gulfstream, which Bellingcat and Guardian Media were unable to verify. The document is not notarized and contains no other form of third-party verification.

This document, dated August 28, 2023, said that he paid US$350,000—a far higher price than the auction price ranges in Panama just months earlier—and listed the vessel as the “Gulf Stream” (sic), a misspelling of its previous name Gulfstream and even though it had been named the Sea Marlin for several years by that time, including in Panama court records from May 2023 onwards.

Olalekan did not provide contact information for the other party named in the document upon request. Ivan Dario Osorno (if misspelt as ‘Orsono’ in the bill of sale) appears to be a genuine individual but no open-source indications could be found that he had any corporate dealings in the oil or shipping businesses. Bellingcat was unable to reach him for comment.

Olalekan claimed he was having both vessels transported to Nigeria when the barge sank, that he had not insured them, and that the Solo Creed was still en route to Nigeria.

Olalekan claimed, “When my vessel get here in few days time you can check them on the Ais and find out for ur self” (sic).

When asked why the Solo Creed had ceased transmission of AIS data during the supposed voyage and continues to hide its location to this day, Olalekan replied, “I choose what to do with my property.” 

Olalekan claimed to have purchased the tug in August 2023, contradicting the Provisional Certificate of Registry from the Zanzibar Maritime Authority that indicates the ship was flagged to Tanzania in November 2023 in the ownership of Gonzalez. (Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania which was given its own maritime regulator in 2009.)

Olalekan further claimed to have no business in Guyana, contradicting a second Certificate of Registration provided by the Zanzibar Maritime Authority, which stated that the Solo Creed is now owned by a Guyanese company.

This second certificate was issued on February 13, 2024, six days after the discovery of the oil spill, and names the updated owner as “Intek Marine Corp”, in the Eccles neighbourhood of Georgetown, Guyana.

When asked about this contradiction, Olalekan said that he purchased the vessels from Intek Marine. He did not explain the discrepancy in dates or names on his supposed bill of sale.

Bellingcat and Guardian Media were not able to locate any company named Intek Marine in the Guyana Commercial Registry.

Olalekan offered no explanation for the contradictory registration documents from the Zanzibar Maritime Authority and repeatedly refused to answer why the vessel was registered in Gonzalez’s name at the same time that he claimed ownership. 

Olalekan ended a conversation on March 2, 2024, by expressing surprise that people were curious about the Solo Creed, saying “(s)uch incident is not new, certain things are inevitable. (sic)”

Olalekan claimed to be in contact with T&T Maritime Authorities but did not produce evidence of this.

The team was able to source a copy of the letter submitted in which Olalekan claimed ownership. It was authored by a Dr Richard Oyiwona, claiming to be Olalekan’s lawyer.

The letter was dated February 15, 2024, one day after the public revelation of the barge by Bellingcat and the tug by the T&T Ministry of National Security, and ten days after the loss of the barge.

Augustine Jackson
When asked why he had waited ten days to report the sunken barge, which posed an immediate navigational and environmental hazard, to maritime authorities, Olalekan said he was not available for conversation as he was “at a wedding function”.

In the letter, Oyiwona claims that Olalekan purchased the Solo Creed on January 12, 2024 and that it travelled to Aruba to pick up the barge on January 16, 2024. This contradicts satellite imagery previously reported by Bellingcat, which shows that the Solo Creed and the Gulfstream travelled together from Colón.

It also contradicts the Certificate of Registration from the Zanzibar Maritime Authority issued on February 13, 2024, two days before the letter was sent, that lists Intek Marine Corp as the registered owner of the vessel.

The letter further claims that the tug and barge were travelling to Guyana to purchase bunker fuel, contradicting documents and reports that the barge was intended to discharge fuel oil in Guyana.

The letter does not acknowledge the 13-day gap in AIS transmissions, where Bellingcat and Tanker Trackers reported the barge’s presence in Pozuelo’s Bay, near the PDVSA terminals at Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela.

Oyiwona did not respond to a request for comment.

Leaky Gulfstream
Port and legal records  described the vessel as “presenting water leaks” and requiring “pumping services” to prevent it from sinking just months before its final, disastrous voyage.

T&T’s Ministry of National Security said that the vessels were bound for Guyana, which shares a sea border with T&T. 

Last week, a report by News Source Guyana claimed the cargo was bound for Guyana Power and Light, which said it “wishes to unequivocally state that the company is not related to this unfortunate incident”.

Bellingcat previously revealed that the vessel leaking oil off the Tobago coast, which stranded there in early February, is a barge formerly known as the Gulfstream. T&T authorities said a tugboat,  Solo Creed, was transporting the barge to Guyana after the vessels left Panama.

Bellingcat also traced the barge’s final journey using satellite imagery, showing that it began leaking oil days before it was found stranded. T&T authorities  asked the owner of the vessels to come forward and claim responsibility for the spill, which  reached hundreds of miles into the Caribbean Sea, but no party has yet been publicly identified.

Connections in Guyana
According to the barge’s booking for a port pilot (a captain who works for a port to help ships navigate their arrival), which was reported by Tobago Updates last week, the Gulfstream was destined for the Vreed en Hoop terminal of Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Guyana’s state-owned electric utility. 

The document said the barge was carrying 4,652 metric tonnes of Bunker C fuel oil, cargo worth approximately US$2 million. This information as well as other information in the document match the specifications of the Gulfstream and Solo Creed.

The name of the captain matches crew manifest documents  obtained by Guardian Media and Bellingcat.

The name Culie Boy was first publicised by maritime attorney Nyree Alfonso in the Trinidad Express.

Bellingcat and Guardian Media were unable to verify the legitimacy of this document, which was independently provided by a source with knowledge of the official investigation.

Rafeek and Moore, the customs agents stamped on the document, did not respond to a request for comment.

GPL has distanced itself from the situation.

“GPL tendered for the Supply and Delivery of Heavy Fuel Oil in June 2023, via national competitive bidding,” the utility said  on February 22. “Six Bids were received. The tender was awarded on October 24, 2023, to Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N V (the first ranked bidder).”

Staatsolie is the national oil company of neighbouring Suriname.

“An additional award for the supply and delivery of HFO was awarded to the joint venture Rapid Results Inc and Osher International Holdings LLC (the second-ranked bidder) to augment GPL’s increasing consumption of HFO and supply requirements.”

GPL stressed that as “title, ownership and risk of loss for the fuel passes from the suppliers to GPL at the discharge port” and it had not received any notification about a loss of cargo from its fuel suppliers. It “unequivocally” had no relation to the oil spill.

The CEO of Guyana Power and Light, Kesh Nandlall, provided no further comment upon request.

The local partner in GPL’s additional award, Rapid Results Inc appears to have little known history in the transport of fuel oil. An entry in the 2021 Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry magazine lists the company under “Healthcare”, and includes a now-defunct URL, http://www.rapidresultspharma.com/.

Links to high places
Records from the Official Gazette of Guyana show that the owner/operator of the company is  Mohamed Hussain and that the company had a licence to import petroleum as of December 31, 2023. Attempts to contact Hussain via his office and a cellphone number were not successful.

Bellingcat and Guardian Media found an archived version of the Rapid Results Inc website in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine from 2018, where the company lists consulting personnel including “Internal Medicine Specialist” and “Pharmaceutical and Vaccination Professionals”. There is seemingly no public indication that the company had previously ever been in the business of supplying fuel oil.

However, Rapid Results appears to have links to higher echelons of Guyanese politics. Most notably, the website of Rapid Results is “Copyright Reyaud Rahman”. 

Dr Rahman appears to be well-connected in Guyana politics, having served as the director of Guyana’s Vector Control Department until he resigned following  fraud  allegations in 2015, and as of 2021 was Executive Liaison Officer to the President of Guyana.

Among his duties there, including while participating in bilateral talks with Ghana, was “to share knowledge and experiences in the oil and gas industry”. He also currently serves as the chairman of Guyana’s Firearms Licensing Board.

A registration number in the Guyana Gazette from the Rapid Result’s establishment in 2014 and the number on an extract from the Guyana Commercial Registry posted on Facebook, which also names Hussain, confirm that this is the same company.

In a WhatsApp conversation with Guardian Media, Rahman denied any affiliation with Rapid Results Inc.

A letter posted on Facebook by Guyana’s Capitol News on February 28 claimed to be from Osher International LLC’s legal firm and Rapid Results Inc addressed to Guyana Power and Light. It reads, “(o)n behalf of Osher International Holdings, LLC, it is my regrettable obligation to inform you that the shipment has an unforeseen delay.”

While the letter did not refer to the Gulfstream by name, it was sent on February 7, 2024, the day after the Gulfstream was due to arrive at GPL, and the  day  the Gulfstream washed up on the reef of Tobago.

Osher and the lawyer who authored the letter did not reply to requests for comment.

Jackson’s Guyana tax certificate
Open-source evidence suggests Augustine Jackson is not without his own connections to prominent Guyanese individuals. A 2014 tax certificate obtained by Guardian Media from a former business partner  shows that Jackson lived in Bel Aire Park, Georgetown at an  address associated with the voter and company registration of Dorwain Bess, a businessman who in 2023 was found guilty by a Guyanese court of importing fuel oil without a licence.

Bellingcat was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the 2014 certificate, but open-source company data links Jackson to Anabel Energy Offshore Services Inc registered at the same address. 

An entry on shipping-data.com lists Jackson (using a known alternate name “Austin”, found on LinkedIn and mentioned in the online post by former business partner Evelyn) as a contact for the similarly named “Anabel Energy & Marine Service Ltd”. The Nassau address provided is associated in Google Maps with Anabel Energy Offshore Services, Inc and data from the Wyoming Secretary of State shows that Bess was the director/president.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali said “(f)rom what I am told, there was a joint venture with a US company with a local company with responsibility for logistics and management once the fuel arrived. I cannot confirm.”

A ‘damaged’ barge
Bellingcat reported last month that the Gulfstream spent 15 months sitting in Colón, Panama, first at a dock  Muelle 3, and then for the last seven months beached along an informal harbour just to the south.

Panama court documents shed more light on how the Gulfstream ended up here and the barge’s condition:
On March 10, 2023, Termini Financing Group, SA, which has the concession to operate the Muelle 3 dock, filed a court order against the Sea Marlin for an unpaid balance of US$205,484.12 for its stay at the dock, since September 13, 2022.

Termini states that it had not received communication or payment from the operators of the Sea Marlin, named Star Goods Petroleum SA, since the barge’s arrival. In the court order, Termini pointed out that the barge had been damaged since it entered the port area and had water leaks so serious they required pumping water from the vessel to prevent it from sinking.

The Gulfstream had to be auctioned three times to sell: on May 9, 2023, with a minimum price of US$187,500; on May 16, with a minimum price of US$125,000; and finally on May 23 with a minimum price of just the court process expenses. On May 24, court records indicated that the matter had been resolved. Termini Financing Group received just US$7,496.30 for the sale.

Between May 29 and June 3, 2023, the Gulfstream had been moved from Muelle 3 to the beach just to the south. On December 30, 2023, having been sold with serious maintenance issues, and without having visited any shipyard for major repairs, the Gulfstream was removed from its harbour to anchor in Colon. On January 12, 2024, it began its voyage to Venezuela.

The Gulfstream has had issues before. In 2019, after going missing at sea for seven days, the barge ran aground on a beach in Cordóba, Colombia. Just weeks later, the vessel again had navigational difficulties due to adverse weather conditions and had to be escorted to port by the Colombian Coast Guard.

Off to Venezuela
Videos obtained from a source who previously communicated with the crew, filmed in late January, show the Solo Creed en route with the Gulfstream. In the audio, which has been removed to protect the identity of crew members, a voice can be heard indicating that they are travelling to Venezuela.
Bellingcat geolocated additional videos provided by the same source to just offshore Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, in Pozuelo’s Bay as previously identified on satellite imagery.