The cleanup of an oil spill from a bulk carrier run aground in the Solomon Islands could reach US$50 million, experts have said, as efforts began to prevent more oil leaking into the sea.
Eighty tonnes of heavy fuel oil has leaked so far in an area close to a world heritage coral site on Rennell Island.
An estimated 600 tonnes remains onboard the MV Solomon Trader and operations yesterday began to pump the fuel from the ruptured tank into a secure container.
It is then to be transferred onto a barge expected to arrive at the site today. The transfer is expected to take two days.
The bulk carrier’s Hong Kong owner, King Trader Ltd, and the vessel’s South Korean insurer issued an apology over the environmental disaster, but stopped short of accepting liability.
The ship had been loading bauxite from a mine in the days before Cyclone Oma pushed it aground on a coral reef in the early hours of Feb. 5.
Australian Maritime Safety Authority officials yesterday began setting up a 4 tonne dynamic boom system brought from Brisbane to start cleaning up the oil that has already spilled into the sea.
Two other Australian vessels were en route with further equipment and are due to arrive tomorrow.
The companies involved with the Solomon Trader are expected to take over the cleanup operation next week. The Australian authority is to pursue them for the cost of its cleanup efforts.
Shipping experts estimate the overall cleanup cost to be between US$30 million and US$50 million.
Australia has been keen to ensure international shipping companies do not shirk their responsibilities for maritime incidents in Pacific island nations.
Acting Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Hou, was also talking tough — threatening to blacklist the companies involved in the leak.
“My government is prepared to go as far as putting the companies on a black list internationally if they do not take on their responsibilities,” Hou told reporters.
The Solomon Islands Maritime Safety Administration said it was investigating a possible breach of the international safety management code because of a “lack of a crew posted on lookout/watch during that night.”
An expert warned there could be huge insurance ramifications for a code breach, including insurers walking away from a claim. That could create headaches over who gets the cleanup bill.
Reports of the Solomon Trader “crew being absent from the vessel or intoxicated at the time of the grounding are false,” the ship’s owner and insurer said in a statement this week.
The vessel has run aground before — 17 years ago the then-Greek-flagged Doric Chariot was hauling coal from Mackay to India when it hit Piper Reef in the Great Barrier Reef.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of