{"id":151406,"date":"2025-08-17T16:20:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=151406"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T23:20:18","slug":"singapore-shipowner-slams-us1-billion-damages-award-after-sri-lanka-marine-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/08\/17\/singapore-shipowner-slams-us1-billion-damages-award-after-sri-lanka-marine-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore shipowner slams US$1 billion damages award after Sri Lanka marine disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy CNA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"Singapore
The Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl partially sinks after burning for almost two weeks, just outside Colombo’s harbour on Jun 4, 2021. (Photo: AFP\/LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COLOMBO: Owners of a Singapore-registered vessel urged Colombo on Friday (Aug 15) to consider more “rational” compensation after they were ordered to pay US$1 billion<\/a> in damages for causing Sri Lanka’s worst case of environmental pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ordered X-Press Feeders in July to pay the damages within a year for causing marine pollution when its vessel caught fire in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court also ordered criminal charges against the skipper and local agents of the MV X-Press Pearl, which sank off Colombo Port after the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From the very start, X-Press Feeders has expressed deep regret to the people of Sri Lanka for the impact … and remained committed to fully assist … in all clean-up operations,” the owners said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They recognised the need for compensation but said “it must be done in an equitable and fair manner that identifies the failings in the response and clean-up operations of the Sri Lankan government”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vessel was carrying 81 containers of “dangerous cargo” that included acids, lead ingots and plastic raw materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tons of microplastic granules from the ship inundated an 80km stretch of beach along Sri Lanka’s western coast. Fishing was prohibited for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sri Lanka orders Singapore shipowner to pay US$1 billion over marine disaster<\/a><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

X-Press Feeders said it had already spent US$150 million to remove the wreck, clean the beaches, and compensate affected fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the damages awarded established an “unprecedented level of risk” that it and other shipping companies would struggle to meet, and called for more “rational decision-making”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankan authorities believe the fire was caused by a nitric acid leak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ports in Qatar and India had refused to offload the leaking nitric acid before the vessel arrived in Sri Lankan waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmentalists who filed the case alleged that both the government and the vessel’s owners had failed to prevent the fire from becoming an unprecedented ecological disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan government has also filed a lawsuit against the ship’s owners in the Singapore International Commercial Court, claiming unspecified damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy CNA COLOMBO: Owners of a Singapore-registered vessel urged Colombo on Friday (Aug 15) to consider more “rational” compensation after they were ordered to pay US$1 billion in damages for causing Sri Lanka’s worst case of environmental pollution. Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ordered X-Press Feeders in July to pay the damages within a year for causing marine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}