The company that bought the tanker formerly known as Exxon Valdez - infamous
for creating one of America's biggest oil spills - has been barred from beaching
it at the Alang shipbreaking yard by the Indian Supreme Court.
The 213,000-tonne ship first entered Indian waters more than a month ago and
has been at anchor awaiting the necessary paperwork before being run up the
beach to be broken up.
However, its new owner, Best Oasis, the shipbreaking subsidiary of Priya Blue
Industries of Gujarat, was yesterday informed of the court's ruling that stated
the ship cannot be beached until it has been decontaminated.
The ruling followed a petition by the Indian environmental group, the Research
Foundation for Science (RFS), which asserted the ship, now called Oriental Nicety
and converted to a bulk carrier, was in breach of the Basel Convention, an
international shipping accord.
The convention, which deals with the movement of condemned ships, is designed to
prevent "dumping" of vessels in less developed countries.
Under its rules, ships destined for breakers' yards must first have all toxic waste
and materials such as asbestos, printed circuit boards and heavy metals, such as
mercury, removed in the exporting country.
RFS said in its petition that the ship was already in breach of the convention and
should be ordered to leave Indian waters.
"Though it has not yet been allowed to berth in any of the ports, the ship, which
is alleged to be contaminated, has entered Indian waters without taking proper steps
for decontamination in the port of export," said Sanjay Parekh, a solicitor for RFS,
after the ruling.
"We will abide with the Supreme Court order. We are studying the order, and will
appeal," a spokesman for Best Oasis told The Times of India yesterday.
The former tanker, built in 1986, was sold by its previous owners, the Chinese shipping
company Cosco, to the ship demolition brokers GMC for US$15.8 million (Dh58m) in March,
before being sold on to the breakers' in India.
The ship's notoriety dates back to the spring of 1989, when television stations around
the world showed endless footage of sea birds and seals floundering in black, viscous
crude after the Exxon Valdez ripped a hole in its hull on Bligh Reef in Alaska's
Prince William Sound, disgorging 32 million gallons of cargo.
The accident, then the worst environmental disaster in United States history, surpassed
only by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, caused an estimated $15bn of
damage and prompted a fundamental rethinking of tanker design.
ExxonMobil, the largest US oil company, spent three years and $3.86bn to clean up the
spill, which damaged 1,120km of coastline and killed more than 36,000 birds, according
to the US environmental protection agency.
Since the disaster, the ship's name has been changed five times.
It has sailed under two flags of convenience - the Marshall Islands and Panama - and been
involved in a major collision at sea.
Several years after the disaster, it was prohibited by law from re-entering Prince William Sound
when Exxon tried to return it to work in US waters.
Source: The National. By David Black
http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/new-setback-for-troubled-ship-as-india-bars-beaching
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