X-Press Feeders handed $1bn fine for X-Press Pearl casualty
The sinking of the containership and resulting pollution has been called Indian Ocean’s worst maritime disaster
Sri Lanka’s supreme court has ordered the boxship’s owner and charterer, which includes X-Press Feeders, to pay the first instalment of the fine by September 23, 2025
THE owners of now lost containership X-Press Pearl (IMO: 9875343) have been ordered to pay a fine of $1bn for what has been called the worst maritime disaster in the Indian Ocean.
The 2021-built, Singapore-flagged, 2,700 teu X-Press Pearl caught fire on May 20, 2021, was abandoned on May 25 of that year and finally sank on June 2, 2021.
No cause of the fire has been formally established, the court’s ruling said. A nitric acid leak was detected by the crew after X-Press Pearl left Jebel Ali. Requests were made to the ports of Hamad and Hazira to discharge the cargo, which were turned down.
Instead, X-Press Pearl headed to Colombo through a cyclone, where another request was made to discharge the cargo.
The fire that started on May 20 was initially brought under control, before reigniting while the vessel was in the outer Colombo harbour. A request for refuge in Colombo was also turned down.
On May 25, Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Authority ordered the vessels to be towed away from its waters, or to relocate it to a designated place of refuge 50 nautical miles away.
Efforts by salvors to tow X-Press Pearl failed on June 2, and the aft portion of the vessel touched the seabed.
Between 70bn-75bn plastic nurdles were spilled in Sri Lanka’s western coastal belt as a result of the disaster. The marine pollution resulted in the deaths of 417 turtles, 48 dolphins and eight whales.
A fishing ban was imposed for more than a year, which the ruling said “deprived the fisherfolk of their income, livelihood and their right to engage in lawful employment”.
The owners and charterers of X-Press Pearl claim the Sri Lankan state authorities should be considered polluters too, for their failure to provide emergency berthing and “adequate facilities to control the fire on board”.
Lawyers for the state instead said the pollution was caused by a failure of the owner, operator and master of X-Press Pearl to deal with the nitric acid leak.
But the court found the master and operator of the containership “suppressed and withheld from the harbour master of the Colombo port, truthful, timely, comprehensive and accurate information regarding the situation that evolved over a period of time”, which meant the harbour master did not take the necessary action.
As a result, the operators, master and agent, including X-Press Feeders, were found responsible for the pollution by the court.
The court said the concealing of the true situation on board “deprived Sri Lanka’s competent authorities of the critical response time that was necessary”.
Sri Lanka’s authorities did not escape without criticism, though, with Nalaka Godahewa, the then-state minister for urban development, coast conservation, waste disposal and community cleanliness, accused of failing to exercise his mandated duties.
But the buck will ultimately stop with the vessel’s owner, master, charterer and operator, who have been ordered to pay $1bn into a compensation and restoration fund. The first instalment of the fine is due by September 23, 2025.
