Belgian tanker owner rejects Yemen call to pay up
Date: 25-Oct-02
Country: BELGIUM
Belgian shipping group CMB, which owns the French-flagged Limburg supertanker through its French Euronav subsidiary, is refusing to pay Yemen $18.5 million in exchange for the release of its vessel.
"It's not our fault," Peter Raes, a CMB managing director, told Reuters. "It (the explosion) is an act of war. We're not going to pay it."
On October 6, a blast tore open the side of the supertanker in the Gulf of Aden, killing one crewman and causing an estimated 50,000 barrels of oil to leak into the sea.
Raes said a 1969 international convention held the owner of a vessel responsible for pollution except in the event of war or an act of terror.
Yemen's Interior Minister Rshad al-Alimi recently labelled the blast a "terrorist act". Officials at Yemen's embassy in Brussels were not available for comment yesterday.
Raes said the amount being demanded by Yemen was the maximum cited by the convention that a ship owner would have to pay for pollution.
Raes estimated the damage to the environment caused by the oil spill at between $250,000 and $500,000.
"If Yemen does not live up to the convention, insurance companies will start revising their insurance premiums for that country," he said.
CMB's stock was down 1.18 percent at 42 euros in late Brussels morning trade. It has risen 15 percent since the blast occurred.
