Attempt to illegally export the ship to
Pakistan revealed
Brussels/Oslo, 6 April 2017 – After having
been informed by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and its member organisation
Bellona that the TIDE CARRIER (now named HARRIER, aka EIDE CARRIER) had been
sold for illegal, dirty and dangerous scrapping to a South Asian beaching
facility, the Norwegian environmental authorities arrested the ship on Tuesday
5 April [1]. The vessel is not allowed to leave Norway unless it is to sail to
a ship recycling destination in line with international and European hazardous
waste laws. According to the Norwegian Environment Agency, it is the first
arrest of a vessel in Norway for the illegal export of hazardous waste.
The Platform had been informed already during
the summer of 2015 that the ship was sold for scrap. Having been laid up for
many years on the Norwegian west coast the Platform immediately contacted the
Norwegian owners Eide Group to make them aware of the laws governing
end-of-life ships and that exporting the vessel to a South Asian beaching yard
would be in breach of the European Waste Shipment Regulation and the UN Basel
Convention. Eide Group denied then that the vessel would be scrapped.
On 22 February 2017 the vessel attempted to
leave Norway under a new name, flag and registered owner. Now called TIDE
CARRIER, the ship had swapped its flag to that of Comoros and was registered
under an anonymous St. Kitts and Nevis based post-box company, Julia Shipping –
all solid indications that a cash buyer, a scrap dealer specialised in the
trading of end-of-life ships to the South Asian beaching yards, was involved.
The TIDE CARRIER however ran into
difficulties as the engine stopped working outside the Norwegian coast of
Jaeren. The coastguards were forced to trigger a salvage operation, complicated
by way of the weather conditions, to avoid the risk of oil spill and grounding
close to one of the most renowned beaches in Norway. The rescue operation
included the emergency evacuation of 5 crew members – one of which suffered
from a broken shoulder – and the deployment of two tugboats to bring the ship
to safety.
Norwegian authorities have since then been
trying to trace the owner and insurer of the vessel, given that someone should
be held accountable for the costs of the rescue operation incurred by the
Norwegian state. While the authorities investigated the ownership and condition
of the vessel, it remained docked in Gismarvik, Norway.
“We immediately informed Norwegian
authorities that the ship was most likely sold for scrapping in South Asia and
also that there were suspicions that the ship had been used to store hazardous
sludge,” says Ingvild Jenssen, Director at the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
On Monday 4 April the Environment Agency and
the Police found evidence that the vessel was under a “break up voyage”
insurance from Norway to Gadani, Pakistan. They also found unidentified and
excessive amounts of sludge and fuel oils. The previous week, while the vessel
was still in the dock, the TIDE CARRIER changed name to HARRIER and changed
from Comoros to another popular end-of-life flag: Palau. Consequently, it
became clear that the repair contract from Oman which had been provided to the
Norwegian authorities as a way to escape checks for the illegal export of the
vessel was false. Revelations of the attempt of the ship’s illegal export and
subsequent breaking on the Gadani beach resulted in the arrest of the ship.
This is not the first time cash buyers seek
to circumvent environmental protection laws by providing fake contracts of
repair or further operational use. Recently the Norwegian owned CITY OF TOKYO
was allowed to leave the port of Antwerp under the pretense of repair work in
Dubai – instead it sailed directly to the infamous beaching yards in
Bangladesh. The FPSO NORTH SEA PRODUCER was also illegally exported from the UK
to Bangladesh under the pretense of further operational use in Nigeria [2].
Cash buyer GMS used grey- and black listed Paris MoU flags and established
anonymous post box companies in both cases.
“The cash buyers of TIDE CARRIER will not
only have to pay back the Norwegian authorities for the rescue operation, but
will also have to answer for the fake repair documents which were used to let
it sail in the first place. Norwegian owner Eide will have to be held
responsible for having sold to a cash buyer as this clearly indicates their
complicity in the attempt to illegally export the ship and the potentially
toxic excess sludges and fuels found on board,” says Ingvild Jenssen.
Source:
ship
breaking platform. 06 April 20
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