SCARBOROUGH, Tobago (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley will on Sunday lead a ministerial team to tour the disaster areas in Tobago impacted by an oil spill.

Rowley will later host a news conference to discuss the situation that has resulted in at least nine miles of Tobago’s southwestern coast being affected including some of the island’s pristine beaches.

Some 1,000 volunteers are involved in the cleanup of the spill as the authorities try to isolate the leak from the vessel which had been abandoned by its crew.

The chief secretary of the Tobago house of Assembly (THA),Farley Augustine said the Trinidad and Tobago government may designate the accident a Level 3 disaster, which is the highest.

“Everything indicates that we are going in that direction,” he said.

The Office of Disease Preparedness Management (ODPM) says the spill is currently level two and it believes that Trinidad and Tobago can deal with the situation.

The authorities said the ship which caused the spill has been identified only as the Gulf Stream and it capsized last Wednesday off the coast of the Cove Eco-Industrial Estate.

No emergency calls were made.