By an OGJ correspondent
KARACHI, June 1 -- Pakistan will claim compensation of $2 billion from the last owners of the Tasman Spirit oil tanker, which ran aground off Karachi July 27, 2003, and spilled 31,000 tonnes of crude oil (OGJ Online, Aug. 14, 2003).
Ministers and officials at a recent symposium in Karachi said Islamabad had grounds for the claim. The symposium was organized by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, United Nations Development Program, National Institute of Oceanography, and Sindh Environmental Protection Agency.
The Tasman Spirit, owned at the time by Palambros, was carrying about 67,500 tonnes of Iranian crude when it ran aground near the approach channel of the Karachi harbor. Half of the oil it spilled was estimated to have sunk to the seabed.
The spill contaminated about 2,062 sq km of marine area, exposed as many as 300,000 people to airborne toxics, damaged offshore habitat, and heavily polluted 786 hectares of mangrove forest.