Shanghai Salvage Company, a subsidiary of the Chinese Ministry of Transportation, will rescue the wreckage of the sunken container ship X-Press Pearl off the coast of Sri Lanka. An agreement has recently been reached between the Sri Lankan government and the company. However, the Florida-based company Resolve Marine will remove various equipment before the ship’s wreckage is lifted from the seabed. Ali Sabri, the country’s justice minister, recently briefed the Sri Lankan legislature.
Ali Sabri said that in the first phase, the Resolve Marine will remove the equipment from the sunken ship. Then in the second phase, Shanghai Salvage will pick up the wreckage of the ship. The cost of this process will be borne by the insurance company.
The Shanghai Salvage Bureau (also known as the Shanghai Salvage Company) of the Chinese Ministry of Transportation is trying to expand its operations throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Rescuing X-Press Pearl’s wreckage in Sri Lanka is part of their efforts to do so.
Last May, an X-Press Pearl tanker had a leakage off the coast of Sri Lanka, spilling nitric acid and triggering a fire. After burning for a couple of weeks, the ship began to sink on 2 June. Environmentalists fear that the incident could lead to environmental catastrophe and a threat to the biodiversity of the sea. Fearing oil could leak from the ship’s fuel tanks, marine biodiversity could be threatened, and they sought the Sri Lankan president’s personal intervention in removing the ship’s wreckage to protect the marine environment.
Hundreds of tonnes of pellets (used as raw materials for plastic products) from the ship spilled into the water after the X-Press Pearl sank. In addition, many non-biodegradable wastes were washed away and deposited on the beaches of the west coast of Sri Lanka. About 650 tonnes of pellets have been removed from Sri Lankan beaches so far.
The Sri Lankan government is still in talks with the ship’s owner and the insurance company over environmental compensation. Ali Sabri said the justice ministry will take legal action if no agreement was reached in the end.
