Prestige catastrophe compensation bill estimated at €1.57bn
Monday, November 20, 2017 @ 11:27 AM
A GALICIA court says Spain could be eligible for over €1.57 billion in compensation for the Prestige disaster in 2002, when the ship of the same name sank in the Bay of Biscay and its 77,000-tonne cargo of fuel caused an oil slick large enough to reach from Barcelona nearly to the Scottish border.
Of this, more than 10%, or €1.8 million, would be destined for the regional government of Galicia for its costs in clearing and recycling the spilt fuel, says the court in A Coruña which handled the Prestige case in 2013.
A further €61m would be payable to the State of France.
Jointly and severally liable are the ship's captain, Apostolos Ioannis Mangouras, The London Steamship Owners' Mutual Insurance Association, and the ship's owner, Mare Shipping Inc.
Mangouras and the insurance company have to pay up to at least US$1bn (€850m).
The captain would have been insured for public liability as part of his profession, as would Mare Shipping.
Insurance companies involved would be able to reclaim some or all of the money from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds), up to the limits the organisation imposes.
Third-most costly environmental disaster after Columbia and Chernobyl
The oil tanker capsized 15 years ago on November 13 during a storm about 250 kilometres off the stretch of shoreline known as the Costa de la Muerte – eerily, 'Death Coast' – in the north-western region of Galicia.
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