15 February 2024
Public questions on the voyage
Pearce Robinson publicly compared the official account, that the tug and barge were on a voyage from Panama toward Guyana, with open-source vessel-tracking material, and asked why the sequence did not add up. Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BXSmzHEg7/?mibextid=wwXIfr. The Ministry of National Security's naming of the Solo Creed is recorded by Bellingcat, 14 February 2024.
16 February 2024
Satellite and open-source material
Robinson published satellite material showing the tug and barge combination and an apparent oil slick south of Tobago. The correct contemporaneous post is https://www.facebook.com/share/1DxPQ3CupP/?mibextid=wwXIfr. The barge identification is attributed to Bellingcat (14 February 2024); the Pozuelo Bay sighting and cargo estimate to TankerTrackers.com. The imagery identified the vessels; it did not establish cargo, owner, charter or destination.
17 February 2024
Panama, Aruba and the Venezuela stop
Robinson published a satellite sequence placing the tug-and-barge combination on a track from Panama through Aruba and into Venezuelan waters before Tobago: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DM4fQApKv/?mibextid=wwXIfr. He described the Venezuela stop as covert while investigating the period in which the tug's AIS was offline. The imagery supports the observed location sequence and the gap in the public AIS trail; it does not by itself establish motive, activity during the stop or deliberate concealment.
18 February 2024
Robinson's direct questions to TankerTrackers.com
Following his published satellite sequence, Robinson directly questioned TankerTrackers.com on seven connected points: the length of the AIS gap north of Venezuela; how long the unit was observed in Pozuelo Bay; whether roughly 35,000 barrels or 5,000 metric tonnes was more consistent with crude or heavy fuel oil in context; how quickly that volume could be transferred from another vessel; whether bunkering, ship-to-ship transfer or power-generation use was technically plausible; whether similar tug-and-barge combinations had been observed there; and what the Ranger / Margie V / Solo Creed history around IMO 7505994 established. TankerTrackers said the AIS was offline about 13 days, that it had seen the vessel in Pozuelo Bay for about a week or more, and that similar combinations had been seen there recently. Screenshots of the direct 18 February 2024 correspondence are retained by the publisher and are not published to protect the integrity of the reporting file.
18 February 2024
Fuel assessment
TankerTrackers said heavy fuel oil was contextually more plausible than crude as refinery feedstock at that quantity, and that roughly 35,000 barrels (about 5,000 metric tonnes) could be loaded quickly from another vessel. Bunker, ship-to-ship and power-plant uses were discussed as possibilities, not findings.
18 February 2024
Vessel identity
IMO 7505994 is associated in vessel records with the names Ranger, Margie V and Solo Creed; database entries are confusing and overlap. The Minister of Energy's statement that over 350 vessels are named Gulfstream (Trinidad and Tobago Guardian) was tested against hull characteristics, tug relationship, IMO history, satellite imagery and other vessel records. See also the House of Representatives Hansard, 20 February 2024: https://www.ttparliament.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/hs20240220u.pdf
21 February 2024
Owner allegation withheld
Social-media claims naming possible owners were circulating. Robinson publicly wrote that he could not confirm them and would not report them, and that he would publish only what he could verify. Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DmeL3EYez/?mibextid=wwXIfr
23–24 February 2024
Fuel type confirmed
Reuters reported on 23 February 2024 that the Government confirmed fuel oil was leaking off Tobago. This supported the fuel-type assessment tested on 18 February. It did not confirm any route, ownership or purpose theory. TEMA's leadership of the response is described by the Ministry of Energy: https://www.energy.gov.tt/tema-leading-and-managing-efforts-in-oil-spill-response/
Reporting method
How the evidence was separated
The reporting treated satellite frames as observations, AIS as a broadcast record, TankerTrackers comments as attributed specialist-source statements, official announcements as claims by the responsible authorities, and ownership or destination propositions as unconfirmed until supported by registry or commercial documents. No formal pre-publication right-of-reply correspondence is represented as part of this file where none is retained.
Later official record
Cargo quantity, Bunker Fuel C and claims
The IOPC Funds incident and claimant record later described the Gulfstream as carrying 4,652 tonnes of persistent Bunker Fuel C and set out the compensation process. This later record corroborated the fuel category while remaining separate from the evidence available during the February reporting. Source: https://iopcfunds.org/gulfstream-information-for-claimants/
March–May 2024
Later route and ownership findings
Bellingcat (20 February 2024) reconstructed the route via Pozuelos Bay and the leak from about 3 February. Bellingcat and the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian (3 March 2024) linked the Solo Creed to a director of Panama-based Melaj Offshore Corporation. Later documentary evidence pointed to Guyana as the destination. The tug was detained off Angola in May 2024. Claimant information: https://iopcfunds.org/gulfstream-information-for-claimants/
Extracts are summarised from the document of record, which is linked above. Where a passage is disputed, this newsroom will publish the correction alongside the extract.