KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Science Energy and Technology Fayval Williams says the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) has identified no illegal connections to Petrojam’s underwater petroleum pipeline.

The minister made the disclosure this morning at a press conference held at State-run oil refinery’s head office in Kingston.

She said Prime Minister Andrew Holness had requested that the JDF do a dive mission in the vicinity of the pipelines following concerns raised by an elderly man.

According to Williams, on January 7, 2019, the elderly man begged the prime minister, who was acting as energy minister at the time, to do a thorough investigation of the underwater pipeline as he believed that oil was being siphoned off.

Williams said the JDF Coast Guard, in a letter dated February 22, 2019, indicated that there were “no illegal attachments identified on any of the 23 pipelines surveyed”.

Acting Commanding Officer of JDF Coast Guard, Lieutenant Commander Aceion Prescott, said the “extensive diving operation” was conducted over a five-day period to assess the status of the pipeline.

It involved approximately 14 divers, who conducted the assessment visually and by hand, where the divers felt along the pipeline to detect any anomalies that may have been there, he explained.