Erika spill prompts maritime safety review

Jan. 24, 2000
The oil spill resulting from the breakup of the Erika tanker off France has, so far, affected more than 400 km of the country's coastline (OGJ, Dec. 20, 1999, p. 38).

The oil spill resulting from the breakup of the Erika tanker off France has, so far, affected more than 400 km of the country's coastline (OGJ, Dec. 20, 1999, p. 38). A positive development from the spill may be the prompting of tougher marine safety and navigation rules and more-rigorous inspection of older tankers.

French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot has written to the presidents of oil companies and to the president of the trade group Union Fran

Gayssot is also preparing to go to war against the sloppy safety record of convenience-flag tankers. He has asked the European Union to set up a common system to eliminate any contravention of the rules of the World Maritime Organization. Meanwhile, European Commission Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio is reportedly mulling a new directive, inspired by the US system, under which the polluter is defined as the owner of the tanker's consignment and not, as is now the case in Europe, the shipowner.

TotalFina's efforts

Thierry Desmarest, Chairman and CEO of TotalFina SA-charterer of Erika and owner of its heavy fuel oil cargo-wrote to the leaders of major oil companies proposing "to prepare together measures to improve maritime safety." An emergency meeting of the Oil Companies International Maritime Forum (OCIMF), which encompasses 43 firms, took place on Jan. 7 in London.

Desmarest said that, when light is shed on the causes of the accident, the inquiry will "lead to improved maritime transport safety." He has set up a 5-year, 50 million franc Sea Foundation to restore the damaged ecosystems of the area, in addition to paying to pump unspilled oil from the ship's hull (OGJ, Jan. 10, 2000, Newsletter).

Desmarest also promised to "tighten in the short term the selection of the ships we charter, with particular attention brought to the history of the vessels." Desmarest added that TotalFina could not eliminate the use of convenience flags or ships more than 20 years old, as environmentalists would like.

The Erika apparently had a number of problems. Sailing under Malta's flag, it was 24 years old and had changed owners a number of times. It had received a safety check from Italy's verification bureau Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) on Nov. 24 in Sicily. But it was reportedly sent to RINA after Bureau Veritas (BV), Paris, had declared it unfit to carry any cargo until an overdue safety check had been performed. The French judge in charge of investigating the Erika shipwreck has begun an inquest into why RINA's experts allowed the tanker to sail when corrosion had been signaled by the captain in two places, precisely where the tanker broke in two.

Spill update

The first report on the Erika sinking by the French bureau that investigates sea accidents, exonerates the tanker's crew and captain from any blame but points out the "extreme opacity" of the commercial chain from the ship's owners to the charterers through RINA's documents. The bureau's report said, "Very probably, the tanker's breakage was due to a structural weakness," of which the documents submitted to TotalFina by RINA made no mention.

The report recommends increasing the role of classification companies, which it says should bear more responsibility in monitoring the structural integrity of vessels. It specifically calls for stricter control of older ships; it also advocates stricter controls in ports and better circulation of information on the state of the vessels.