Ship owner pays K1mil penalty fee

A SHIP owner has paid a penalty of K1.1 million to the National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) for spilling oil into the pristine Simpson Harbour in Rabaul, East New Britain.
According to the authority, the negligence was in breach of several sections of the Marine Pollution Law.
NMSA acting general manager/chief executive officer Captain Krzysztof Orlowski said this should be a warning to other ship owners and operators, especially barges that are illegally carrying diesel oil to their log pond that the authority would not hesitate to impose the maximum penalty under the Marine Pollution Acts.
In a statement yesterday, NMSA said it discovered in an investigation that the spill was leaking from the right (starboard) side under the keel of the DB Archer Star.
“The named barge’s three tanks were filled with cargo oil, especially diesel oil, with a volume of 1,132,000 litres,” NMSA said.
“During the investigation, it was revealed that 30,000 litres of diesel oil was discharged into the sea, breaching Section 6 of the Marine Pollution (Ships & Installations) Act 2014.
“The penalty under Section 6 of the said Act is K1 million.
“Furthermore, the investigation revealed that the named barge is not designed to carry liquid fuel in void spaces.
“The void spaces are primarily designed as reserve buoyancy and not specifically designed to carry diesel oil.
“It is only designed to carry general deck cargo and roll-off cargo. The investigation found that DB Archer Star carried a total of 1,132,000 litres of diesel oil from Malaysia to PNG, breaching section 7 of the Marine Pollution (Ships and Installations) Act 2013.
“The penalty under this section of the Act is K1 million.
“The barge also failed to produce a valid international oil pollution Insurance Certificate as required.
“In deciding the penalty, the authority took into consideration that this shipping company was a first-time offender, had cooperated with the investigators, admitted to the offence committed and there was no damage caused by the oil spill being reported to date.”