Posted on March 30, 2023 at 5:11 pm
The Maritime Executive
A Greek ship manager has pleaded guilty to criminal MARPOL violations in connection with the discharges of oil waste aboard the product tanker. Galicia. The owner also admitted to sailing the vessel across the Atlantic and into US waters without notifying the Coast Guard that the inert gas system was broken, creating a dangerous condition on board.
On February 2, when the oil tanker Galicia was preparing to leave Rotterdam, the crew discovered that the inert gas system was not working. Instead of waiting for a spare part to fix it, the ship’s captain and manager, Zeus Lines Management, decided to sail the ship to the US and get the part on arrival in Newport, Rhode Island, even though that there could be dangerous levels of oxygen in the cargo tanks during transit. The master failed to report this dangerous situation to the Coast Guard in the pre-arrival documentation and at the time of arrival in Newport. The crew received and installed the replacement part they needed as soon as they arrived in the US, but the system remained broken after installation.
On February 20, the day after arrival, the US Coast Guard boarded Galicia and began an inspection. The captain told them the inert gas system was not working, and inspectors took measurements of the percentage of oxygen in the ship’s cargo tanks. The oxygen level measured 15-17 percent, well above the maximum safe level of 8 percent. Given the potential fire or explosion hazard created by this condition, the Coast Guard ordered Galicia move to an anchorage further offshore where the vessel would not pose a risk to life and property.
The master consulted with the Zeus operations manager about this situation, and the manager ordered him to make a logbook showing regular readings of the tank’s oxygen levels during the voyage. This false record was designed to show that the oxygen level had been safe at the time of departure and during most of the ship’s transit. No such reading had actually been taken by the crew. The task of preparing this notebook fell to the first officer, who took charge of it, and the record was submitted to the Coast Guard.
Meanwhile, as maritime inspectors continued to examine the ship, they found more than two dozen deficiencies. The junk log book, cargo line certificate and fire drill records were missing, the lifeboat launching arrangements were not working and there were problems with the steering gear, electrical systems, winches, drinking water system and oil water separator, according to the report they reported. archived in Equasis.
In the course of this inspection, they discovered that the log entries in the chief engineer’s oil log did not completely line up with the electronic logs of the oil and water separator. The Coast Guard interviewed the chief engineer, who stated that the ship’s oil waste had been properly disposed of at shore reception facilities, a costly compliance service that increases overhead for the ship operator
However, the Coast Guard determined that his claim was not accurate. Instead, the chief engineer had ordered lower-ranking crew members to discharge untreated oily bilge water into the sea on three separate occasions, releasing a total of 9,500 gallons of oily waste into the marine environment. None of these discharges were recorded in the oil log book. To hide this practice from the US Coast Guard, the agency with the world’s strictest reputation for MARPOL processes, the Galicia“The chief engineer repeatedly ordered his subordinates to lie about where the oily waste had gone.
Zeus Shipmanagement has agreed to plead guilty to one count of failing to keep an accurate oil logbook and one count of failing to immediately report a dangerous condition. The firm agreed with prosecutors to recommend a $2.25 million fine and four years of probation.
The chief engineer, Roberto Cayabyab Penaflor, has pleaded guilty to one count of violating MARPOL. The maximum possible penalty is six years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The captain, Jose Ervin Mahigne Porquez, pleaded guilty to one count of failure to immediately report a dangerous condition. The maximum possible penalty is the same: six years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
