Singapore (AFP) – A Singapore shipping company told AFP on Tuesday it will refuse to pay Sri Lankan court-ordered damages of US$1 billion for causing that country's worst case of environmental pollution.
Issued on: 23/09/2025 - RFI
In an exclusive interview, X-Press Feeders chief executive Shmuel Yoskovitz said he believed paying would have wide-ranging implications on global shipping and "set a dangerous precedent".
The company operated the MV X-Press Pearl that sank off Colombo Port in June 2021 after a fire -- believed caused by a nitric acid leak -- that raged for nearly two weeks.
Its cargo included 81 containers of hazardous goods, including acids and lead ingots, and hundreds of tonnes of plastic pellets.
The ship was refused permission by ports in Qatar and India to offload the leaking nitric acid before it arrived in Sri Lankan waters.
Tonnes of microplastic granules from the ship inundated an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of beach along Sri Lanka's western coast. Fishing was prohibited for months.
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court in July ordered the company to pay Colombo an "initial" US$1 billion in damages within a year, with the first tranche of US$250 million to be paid by Tuesday.
It also ordered the company "to make such other and further payments" in the future as the court may direct.
'Hanging guillotine'
Yoskovitz rejected the open-ended nature of the penalty.
"We are not paying because the whole base of maritime trade is based on the limitation of liability. This judgment undermines this limitation of liability," he told AFP.
"Any payment towards the judgment could set a dangerous precedent for how maritime incidents will be resolved in the future," he said.
Yoskovitz said the absence of limitations could lead to higher insurance premiums, which would be ultimately passed on to consumers.
The chief executive again apologised for the incident, saying the company recognised the disaster and was trying to make amends.
He said X-Press Feeders had already spent $170 million to remove the wreck, clean up the seabed and beaches, and compensate affected fishermen.
"We are not trying to hide... We are willing to pay more, but it has to be under certain marine conventions and an amount that is full and final and then it can be settled, and we can move on," he said.
"But to live under this hanging guillotine -- it is simply impossible to operate like this."
Long-term effects
In Colombo, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing on Thursday about the implementation of its decision.
One of the petitioners who sought compensation for the pollution has called for further research to determine the full extent of the damage to the island's marine ecosystems.
"If you visit the coastlines today, there is nothing visible in terms of plastic pollution. A major clean-up took place soon after the X-Press Pearl incident, but the effects of the pollution will be felt for a long time," said Hemantha Withanage from the Centre for Environmental Justice.
It remains unclear how Sri Lanka's Supreme Court could enforce its decision.
However, in its 361-page decision in July, the court ordered the police and the state prosecutor to initiate criminal proceedings for non-compliance if the parties were present in Sri Lanka.
Yoskovitz expressed concern over the ship's Russian captain, Vitaly Tyutkalo, who has been banned from leaving Sri Lanka for more than four years, as well as the company's third-party agents there.
The firm had offered to pay a fine for the skipper's release, but this was refused, according to Yoskovitz.
X-Press Feeders obtained an order from London's Admiralty Court in July 2023, limiting its liability to a maximum of 19 million pounds (US$25 million), but Sri Lanka has challenged that.
The Sri Lankan government also filed a lawsuit against the ship's owners in the Singapore International Commercial Court. But that has been stayed pending the result of the case in London, with a pre-trial hearing expected in May 2026.
© 2025 AFP
X-Press Feeders Declines to Pay Sr Lankan Court Judgmen
X-Press Feeders has declined to pay an initial judgment ordered by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka for damages from the loss of the XPress Pearl, which burned and sank off Colombo with disastrous effects in 2021. The first $250 million tranche is due on September 23, and if paid, it would more than double the amount that X-Press has paid out so far.
In a statement Tuesday, the Singapore-based company said that it is "unable to make payment at this stage, and it is still in talks with Sri Lankan authorities.
"While we respect the judicial process, the ruling leaves open the possibility of additional and potentially unlimited compensation. Any payment towards the judgement could set a dangerous precedent for how maritime incidents will be resolved in the future," said Shmuel Yoskovitz, Chief Executive Officer of X-Press Feeders.
X-Press Pearl suffered a slow-rolling disaster on her final voyage in 2021. Several containers of nitric acid started leaking on deck, and the master sought a port of refuge. However, port officials at Hamad, Qatar and Hazira, India refused to allow the unloading of the leaking boxes. The container ship sailed onwards to Colombo, Sri Lanka, a voyage of some 1,000 nautical miles southeast from Hazira.
On arrival off Colombo, a container on deck caught fire, but local authorities refused to allow XPress Pearl to berth for firefighting operations. The ship burned and sank, releasing acids, caustic soda, 9,700 tonnes of epoxy resin and 1,680 tonnes of plastic pellets into the water - the largest plastic spill in history.
In July 2025, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court ruled in favor of local fishermen in an environmental-damage suit against X-Press Feeders, finding that X-Press had not fully informed the port of the unfolding catastrophe on board. The court set the value of the loss at $1 billion and gave the owner, charterer and agent one year to pay. The court's plan requires four $250 million installments, payable quarterly. All the money would be deposited in court-administered funds for compensation to the fishing community and for environmental remediation.
X-Press Feeders took issue with the court's decision. “The court’s intent to lay all blame and liability on the vessel’s owners and operators is blatantly apparent in their judgment,” the firm said in a statement last month. "[It has] effectively pronounced the vessel’s master and local agents guilty of criminal charges before their trials have concluded," referring to the parallel criminal case against X-Press Pearl's captain.
In the new statement issued Tuesday, X-Press Feeders said that it sympathizes with local fishermen and is willing to work with local nonprofits and community organizations to provide compensation directly. It noted that all government claims approved by the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation have already been paid out. Yoskovitz called for a court judgment that is "substantiated, proportionate and consistent with international conventions."
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