Daijiworld Media Network – Singapore

Singapore, Sep 23: Singapore-based X-Press Feeders has refused to pay the US $1 billion compensation ordered by Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court for the 2021 MV X-Press Pearl disaster, calling the ruling a threat to global maritime trade.

Chief executive Shmuel Yoskovitz told AFP the company would not comply with the “open-ended” penalty, warning it “undermines the limitation of liability on which the whole base of maritime trade is built” and could “set a dangerous precedent.” The court had directed an initial payment of $250 million by Tuesday and left room for further damages.

The MV X-Press Pearl sank off Colombo in June 2021 after a fire—likely sparked by a nitric acid leak—burned for nearly two weeks. Its hazardous cargo, including acids, lead ingots and hundreds of tonnes of plastic pellets, polluted an 80 km stretch of Sri Lanka’s western coast, crippling local fisheries and sparking what experts call the island nation’s worst marine pollution disaster.

Yoskovitz said the firm has already spent $170 million on wreck removal, seabed cleanup and compensation for fishermen, and is willing to settle under established maritime conventions with a “full and final” amount. But he likened the current judgment to a “hanging guillotine,” adding that limitless liability would drive up global shipping insurance premiums and consumer costs.

Sri Lanka’s government said it will seek guidance from the attorney general on enforcement. The UN office in Colombo welcomed the court’s decision, noting that the “polluter pays” principle is embedded in international law.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing Thursday on implementing the order, though it remains unclear how it could compel payment. The ship’s Russian captain remains barred from leaving Sri Lanka more than four years after the incident, while related legal battles continue in courts in London and Singapore.