Prestige final settlement: €1.5bn compensation set by Supreme Court
Friday, December 21, 2018 @ 10:03 AM
A COMPENSATION bill for the worst environmental disaster in Spain's living history has been set at a record €1.5 billion after a Supreme Court hearing this week.
It has taken 16 years since the Prestige catastrophe for the full amount to be confirmed, for which the captain – Apostolos Ioannis Mangouras – and the owner, Mare Shipping Inc, are jointly and severally liable.
The huge settlement will be made by the London Steamship Owners' Mutual Insurance Association and by Mangouras' own public liability insurer, both of whom would be able to reclaim some of the money from the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds.
Officially the world's third-most expensive environmental disaster after the Columbia and Chernobyl, the Prestige oil tanker capsized in a storm on November 13, 2002 some 250 kilometres out to sea off Galicia's Costa de la Muerte – which, ironically, translates as 'Death Coast' – causing its 77,000-tonne fuel cargo to empty into the water.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com