X-Press Pearl disaster: Owners refuse to abide by SC order

Singapore headquartered X-Press Feeders has refused to abide by Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court order made in July that the company pay an ‘initial’ US$1 billion in damages within a year to Sri Lankan authorities, with the first tranche of US$250 million to be paid by 23 September.

- 

The SC also ordered the company “to make such other and further payments” in the future as the court may direct for causing the country’s worst environmental disaster.

The AFP quoted Chief Executive Shmuel Yoskovitz as having said that the damages wouldn't be paid for causing Sri Lanka's worst case of environmental pollution. The AFP, in an exclusive interview, further quoted him as having asserted that paying would have wide-ranging implications on global shipping and set a dangerous precedent.

The company operated the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl that sank off the Colombo Port, in June 2021, following a fire — believed to be caused by a nitric acid leak — that raged for nearly two weeks.

Its cargo included 81 containers of hazardous goods, including acids and lead ingots, and hundreds of tonnes of plastic pellets.

The ship was refused permission by ports in Qatar and India to offload the leaking nitric acid before it arrived in Sri Lankan waters without informing authorities here of the grave hazard it was carrying.