Insurers brace for hefty claims from sunken Philippine tanker

The International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds) and the Shipowners’ P&I Club, the liability insurer of the sunken Princess Empress, have decided to open a claims submission office in Oriental Mindoro in the Philippines to facilitate the submission of thousands of claims for compensation.

The Philippines is a party to both the 1992 Civil Liability Convention (CLC) and the 1992 Fund Convention. IOPC Funds said that it had been following developments and working closely with the club and the government of the Philippines since the product tanker sank with a cargo of industrial fuel oil then spilling into the seas around the centre of the Southeast Asian country. Thus far, an estimated 175,000 people have been affected by the spill, with plenty more fuel gushing from the ship’s ruptured tanks every day. Thousands of fishermen remain subject to an ongoing fishing ban.

IOPC Funds said that, given the latest information reported, claims relating to this incident might exceed the limit of liability of the insurer under the 1992 CLC. It was therefore possible that the 1992 Fund would be called upon to pay compensation.

The insurers have hired French oil spill response company Le Floch Depollution (LFD), which is in the process of activating resources. Japan, South Korea and the US have already provided material assistance.

The Princess Empress was found last week by a Japanese remotely operated underwater vehicle, at a depth of nearly 400 m.

It had suffered “extensive structural damage”, the Philippine Coast Guard said. Seven out of eight cargo tanks have leaked. Of those, four are already empty.

Oil has been found as far away as the western island of Palawan, more than 350 km from where the tanker went down.

Some oil has also drifted north to the Verde Island Passage, between Mindoro and the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, an area highly prized for its rich marine bioversity.

The ship’s history has been brought into question. While shipping database Equasis lists the locally flagged Princess Empress as being built in 2022, the country’s justice secretary, Jesus Crispin Remulla, has said the vessel was in fact very old, a candidate for scrapping, that had been modified twice, including a period where it traded as an LPG carrier.

Hernani Fabia, administrator of the country’s Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), said earlier this month that the ship owned by Manila-based RDC Reield Marine Services did not have a permit to operate before it headed on its fateful voyage. A senate hearing also heard that the ship had travelled on nine previous voyages without the right paperwork.