The Tribune

• ‘Ruptured hose’ causes 30,000 gallon loss

• Firm ‘investigating’ insurance with shipper

• ‘We’ll do whatever it takes’ so no repeat 

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FOCOL Holdings’ chairman yesterday pledged it was “deploying every resource we have” to clean-up the 30,000 gallon Exuma oil spill, and said: “We’ll do whatever’s necessary to stop it happening again.”

Sir Franklyn Wilson, the BISX-listed petroleum products supplier’s head, told Tribune Business the spill was caused by “a ruptured hose” that was transferring diesel fuel from a vessel, the MT Arabian, to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) storage facility on the island.

Revealing that FOCOL’s Sun Oil subsidiary had contracted with the Arabian’s owner for the fuel delivery, he added that it was now “investigating” whether that company, Gladstone Road-headquartered D&T Shipping, has the necessary insurance in place to cover the costs associated with oil spill containment and remediation.

But, regardless of the outcome, Sir Franklyn promised the BISX-listed firm will “not allow the problem to linger” while all parties involved determine who is liable and responsible for covering the costs associated with a clean-up operation that appeared to be making solid progress yesterday.

He disclosed that Sun Oil, which is contracted to ship fuel supplies to BPL’s Family Island operations, was forced to outsource the Exuma delivery to D&T Shipping due to the loss of its gas tanker, the M/T Tropic Breeze, when it sank on Christmas Eve 2021 after being struck by a 207-foot super yacht.

Dexter Adderley, FOCOL’s president and chief executive, in confirming to the company’s directors that 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel had been lost into the sea, said in a briefing note: “The spill resulted from a ruptured hose during the discharge from the vessel, MT Arabian.  The MT Arabian is a third party vessel owned by a company, D&T Shipping.”

Gregory Stuart, D&T Shipping’s president, did not return a Tribune Business call seeking comment despite a detailed message being left for him. However, Sir Franklyn added: “Mr Stuart has assured us that his company will do all it can to assist with the remediation effort. We, in turn, have assured him that Sun Oil will support the effort in every way we can. 

“Mr Stuart has given us his assurance, and we are sure he will do the best he can and we are supporting it in every possible way. The owner of the Arabian recognises the challenge, and will give it their best. Every resource we have,all the resources we have available within our group, we are deploying. This, for us, is a significant thing.

“We are very concerned, very, very concerned. Environmental protection in the world of business today, responsible companies operate under the ESG mantra of environment, social and governance. The first one is environment. Given what FOCOL and Sun Oil see ourselves as being, we take this very seriously. Very, very seriously, being responsible and committed to the environment.”

Alfred Sears, minister of works, told the House of Assembly that D&T Shipping was organising the transportation of booms and other oil spill response/remediation equipment from Grand Bahama to Exuma yesterday, as he reassured that the Government’s environmental and regulatory agencies were addressing the situation and “every reasonable resource” was being deployed.

He spoke after Adrian White, the St Ann’s MP and leader of Opposition business in the House of Assembly, called for an “all hands on deck” approach to protect Exuma’s ocean and environment as “a matter or urgency”. Subsequent photos of the spill yesterday suggested it has been relatively well contained, with Chester Cooper, deputy prime minister and Exuma’s MP, saying it was largely restricted to the bay area around the Exuma Sailing Club.

When asked whether either FOCOL/Sun Oil or D&T Shipping possessed insurance to cover the costs associated with oil spill remediation, Sir Franklyn replied: “We are investigating this matter with the company with whom we contracted. We can assure all concerned we will not allow the problem to linger while we determine who pays.

“We’ll do whatever we can to get the problem solved and the question of compensation [liability] will be left to another day.... I don’t have a sense of the figures now. What I’m saying is that Sun Oil is committed to dealing with the matter, and we will deal with the issue of insurance and compensation at a later date. The biggest priority is first things first. The ship owner is doing all they can, we are providing all the support we can. It obviously has the attention of government.”

Sir Franklyn added that FOCOL/Sun Oil, in common with the Government, will also be requesting an incident report from D&T Shipping to determine how the “hose rupture” leading to the oil spill occurred and what lessons can be learned to prevent a repeat.

Pointing out that such spills are “very, very rare”, he revealed: “We have asked the ship owner to provide us with a full and comprehensive report as to what happened. The Government has asked for the same, and we’ll have a chance to get into the details.

“That’s the next step in the process. Right now it’s about remediation, getting problems solved, and the ship owner providing a report to the Government. We’ll then take whatever steps are necessary to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Asked whether the necessary oil spill response equipment is present in The Bahamas, Sir Franklyn replied: “Let me put it this way. We believe we have sufficient to do so, but to the extent there’s any shortfall we have relationships that will allow us to get additional resources on very short notice.

“We are taking responsibility in that we are the people BPL contracted with. We are pleased that the company we sub-contracted to because of the December incident are shoulder to shoulder with us in seeking the best possible outcome.”

The FOCOL Holdings chairman said tackling the oil spill, which was spotted at 4am yesterday morning but could have happened at any time from 5pm Tuesday afternoon, was the top priority for Clinton Rolle, Sun Oil’s managing director, who had adjusted his schedule to focus on it.

Explaining what he meant by “December incident”, Sir Franklyn told this newspaper: “The use of a third-party vessel became necessary on a short-term basis because of the incident with the tanker that sank in December 2021. A yacht ran into one of our tankers and it sank. It is because of that we have had to make interim arrangements to meet these needs.”

This involved the loss of the M/T Tropic Breeze, when it sank on Christmas Eve 2021 after being struck by a 207-foot super yacht, the M/Y Utopia IV, around 15 miles north north-west of New Providence. Mr Cooper, meanwhile, described the oil spill near the Old Navy Base in Georgetown as “significant”.