Questions that remain unanswered

It was April 11, 2006 when a tank ship, the 172.08 metre-long M/T Seapurha, registered under the Maltese flag, approached an ore bulk oil vessel, anchored at Hurd’s Bank, a few miles east of Valletta. The OBO vessel, which had the words Probo Koala written in full view and flew a Panamanian flag, was roughly the same length as the Malta-registered ship.

The Seapurha was detailed to load 28,829.421 metric tons of gasoline blendstock, or “unwashed gasoline components”, onto the Probo Koala. A total of 50 cubic metres of caustic soda, which has the aim of treating the high mercaptan sulphur levels found in gasoline blendstock so that the product can be economically blended into gasoline, was added proportionately across the cargo tanks.

The caustic soda was circulated for a whole day in order to achieve contact with the gasoline blendstock and the spent caustic soda fell into the bottom of the tank and became saturated with the mercaptan sulphur, which had just been washed from the gasoline blendstock. For each 50 cubic metres of caustic soda used, about 150-180 cubic metres of total byproduct was generated and was transferred into the vessel’s slop tanks.

Initially, the gasoline blendstock from Mexico was transported from Brownsville to Tunisia to be “washed” on land but when this led to odour and smell problems the owner of the shipments, Trafigura Beheer BV (which is also a majority shareholder of a company registered in Malta), started to de-sulphurise the product on board the Probo Koala.

The Probo Koala was then detailed to advance to offshore Gibraltar where a second vessel, Moselle, registered in the Marshall Islands, loaded 28,130.400 tonnes of gasoline blendstock and 50 cubic metres of caustic soda and an oxidising catalyst on May 19, 2006. A few days later, on June 1, 2006 a third vessel, the M/T Seavinha, also registered in Malta, loaded a third and final cargo of 28,283.827 tonnes of gasoline blendstock.

After these three washings, on June 27, the Probo Koala had about 17, 812 cubic metres of clean gasoline and 528 cubic metres of waste since the washed gasoline had been picked up by the vessels in the process.

At the end of June 2006, the Probo Koala set sail to Paldiski to unload a shipment of oil and called in at Amsterdam for refuelling and to dispose of the waste. The costs of slop disposal were high and the ship left for Paldiski and then to Nigeria where the waste was still kept on board. After attempting to unload the slops, the vessel sailed to the Ivory Coast where the slops were dumped and we all know the unfortunate story for the Ivorians.

An internal report drawn up by John Milton, of Milton, Trehame and Davies Ltd, on September 14, 2006 declared that this waste could not be dumped in terrestrial waste sites in the EU because it ran counter to Directive 1999/31/EC. However, since the Ivory Coast did not have similar regulations, the waste was dumped terrestrially despite the byproduct being ­capable of “causing severe human health effects... which include headaches, breathing difficulties, nausea, eye irritation, skin ulceration, unconsciousness and death”.

On October 23, 2006 when the EU Environment Ministers were meeting during the first of two Council meetings organised by the Finnish presidency, the Environment Commissioner at the time, Stavros Dimas, stressed the need of issuing the required directives to combat trans-frontier waste shipments and similar green crimes. Malta, which to date has not yet ratified the BAN amendments to the Basel Convention on trade in hazardous waste, was the only country at that meeting which adopted an opposing stand.

In Parliament, on June 5 and 28, I asked, first verbally and then in writing, whether the Maltese government could confirm that the Probo Koala at some point had been in the Contiguous or the Exclusive Economic Zone of Malta, whether the Maltese authorities knew of the caustic washing being made on board and whether third parties, such as the Marpol, had informed the government of what was going on. To date, the government has not deemed it fit to issue replies or a form of statement.

It is the duty of Malta, as the father of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and as a neutral country actively pursuing peace, to be on the forefront to fight trade in hazardous waste at the detriment of poor countries. In the meantime, we are waiting for answers.

owenbonnici@onvol.net

Dr Bonnici is opposition spokesman for youth and culture and member of the Foreign and European Affairs Parliamentary Committee.