Shanghai Salvage will remove the wreck of the sunken ship X-Press Pearl off the coast of Sri Lanka, according to local media.
Resolve Marine will also participate in the work, as it will clear the materials in the ship during one stage. The clearing of the ship wreckage will be done by the Shanghai Salvage Company during the other stage.
However, Sri Lanka is still in negotiation with the owner and insurer of the X-Press Pearl to reach an agreement on environmental compensation. In fact, the vessel spilled tons of plastic pellets when it sank.
To date, about 650 tonnes of pellets have been removed from Sri Lanka’s beaches, thanks to 3,500 man-days of effort.
In addition, an environmental damage assessment for the effects of the sinking is also taking place, and is expected to have been completed by early January.
Then, Sri Lanka will file an additional request for environmental compensation from the shipowner. Since the incident, an initial payment of $3.6 million has been received to help pay for economic impacts, while $1.6 million of this amount has been distributed to fishing communities.
If the Sri Lankan government cannot reach an agreement with the shipowner for environmental damages, then the government will start legal action.
The ship, carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid and a huge amount of plastic raw materials, was heading to Colombo from Gujarat, India, when it sank.
Sri Lankan officials informed that an acid leak may have caused the blaze, with the country having launched a criminal investigation.
Finally, Sri Lankan environmentalists sued the government and the ship’s operators for allegedly failing to prevent the “worst marine disaster” in the country’s history.
