A Greek shipping company has agreed to pay the New Zealand government up to US$31.5 million toward the cleanup costs of a cargo ship’s grounding on a reef near popular swimming and surfing beaches last year. But taxpayers will still be footing some of the bill.
The vessel Rena ran onto the Astrolabe reef near Tauranga on a calm night last October. It spilled hundreds of tons of oil and killed thousands of sea birds in what authorities say was New Zealand’s worst maritime environmental disaster.
Daina Shipping, a subsidiary of Greek-based Costamare, along with its insurers agreed on Tuesday to settle with New Zealand for US$22.9 million for oil cleanup costs incurred so far and another US$8.6 million if it doesn’t remove the pieces of the wreck that still sit on the reef.
The company has also spent an estimated US$80 million on a separate salvage operation – removing oil, hundreds of shipping containers and some parts of the ship’s frame.
The New Zealand government says the disaster has cost it US$38.9 million, meaning Tuesday’s settlement will leave it out of pocket at least US$7.4 million, but that maritime laws limit Costamare’s financial liability.
“I think it’s a very good result given all of the circumstances,” said Keith Manch, the chief executive of Maritime New Zealand, the agency that oversees shipping in the country.
He said it isn’t ideal that taxpayers end up having to pay some of the costs. However, he said, Costamare had agreed to pay more than double the limit it was legally obliged to under New Zealand shipping laws enacted some 36 years ago.
