Napoli bill put at staggering £120m

THE grounding of the MSC Napoli off the Westcountry coast is the second most expensive shipping incident ever, it has emerged.

Insurers of the 62,000-tonne container ship, beached off East Devon in January 2007, have estimated the total bill for the wreck at £120 million.

It means the clean-up, salvage, vessel and cargo costs from the Napoli are second only to the Exxon Valdez – the tanker which spilt 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into the sea at Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989.

One of the biggest environmental disasters to occur at sea, its costs have run into hundreds of millions of pounds. News of the vast bill emerged as the Maritime and Coastguard Agency released a report into the grounding, making 11 recommendations.

Charles Hattersley, a Plymouth- based marine law expert, said the huge costs were "understandable" given the nature of the incident. But he said the scale, and cost, of the incident had not been matched by the Government's response.

"In my view, the Government should have instigated its own public inquiry into what happened," said Mr Hattersley, a partner at Ashfords solicitors. "Instead, Devon County Council has had to step up to the plate."

The cost of the Napoli grounding was revealed by the London Steam-Ship Owners' Mutual Insurance Association Limited, otherwise known as the P&I (Protection and Indemnity) Club. It is managed by London-based A Bilbrough and Company Limited.

In its annual report, chief executive Paul Hinton confirmed the Napoli's £120 million estimated bill was the "second most expensive claim ever".

He said the beaching of the vessel had avoided "a potentially very grave environmental disaster". He described the aftermath as "an enormous challenge in technical, regulatory and legal terms".

Mr Hinton added: "The salvage and removal of the wreck of the ship and her containers, as well as the disposal of cargo within the containers, has been a unique experience in a number of respects, but importantly, it is the first occasion on which a large container ship has foundered in a recoverable condition off the coast of a European state.

"Other container ships have been salvaged following fire or explosion (resulting in the loss of a relatively small proportion of their cargo) or have sunk in deep water (with the total loss of ship and cargo). "The MSC Napoli represents the first occasion when almost the totality of a ship's container cargo has been brought ashore in both sound and extensively wetted condition, for forwarding and disposal.

"This huge undertaking has also taken place under the watchful eye of one of the most robust environmental regulatory regimes in the world and every aspect of the waste cargo handling and disposal operation, involving the disposal of some 30,000 tonnes of cargo, has been scrutinised by the Environment Agency."

He said the total cost of recovering the cargo and removing the ship had escalated to some £53 million. Yesterday, the MCA's 103-page report into the incident was submitted to the Devon County Council-led inquiry into the grounding.

It concedes that lessons can be learned to improve communication between organisations and streamlining the jurisdiction between land and sea.

The report highlights 11 recommendations which include improving communications between salvagers and land-based response organisations, and educating other agencies on marine emergency procedures.

It says the next Marine National Contingency Plan should assess who is best-placed to take responsibility for protecting and cleaning the shoreline, and also how various response centres could be merged to offer more effective communication and partnerships.

But the professionalism of those involved in the operations at sea meant the risk of years of oil pollution along the coasts of Devon was averted.

The report summarises the MCA's activities from January 18 last year when the Napoli, bound for South Africa, "suffered a catastrophic hull failure" when she was 50 miles south of Cornwall's Lizard peninsula, and the 26-strong crew was rescued after taking to life-rafts.

It addresses the controversial issue of why the Napoli was towed to British waters instead of French, when its position was between the two. "The conclusion was that the least environmentally risky option was to tow the vessel to a place of refuge in UK waters," it says.

The Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, Robin Middleton, decided the ship was in danger of breaking up and polluting the English Channel and should be towed to Portland. But, during the operation, the weather deteriorated and the salvors and Mr Middleton decided to beach her in Lyme Bay to minimise the pollution threat.

The report says the only option was to ground the ship on shallow waters to avoid "almost certain" break-up. The Napoli had 3,664 tonnes of fuel oil and marine diesel on board.

"The spilled oil would have escaped and found its way on to many beaches, possibly on both sides of the Channel, for many years," says the report.

The report accepts that the "understandable" confusion over the legislation governing salvage had been exploited by salvagers who descended on Branscombe's beaches after 50 containers washed ashore.