Erika effect still being felt

by Franco Aloisio

A year ago, the 25-year-old Maltese-flagged tanker Erika split into two off the western coast of France, dumping 70,000 barrels of fuel oil that washed up on 250 miles of French shoreline.
Not since the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska had a tanker spill caused such an uproar. And it has had much the same impact on the international tanker business. Soon after the Erika sank, French authorities began calling for tougher restrictions to prevent spills. Oil companies that were once happy to use older ships at destinations where this was allowed began shunning vintage tankers.
The cost of chartering newer tankers went through the roof. Those high rates have had a direct impact on oil prices that goes beyond the added expense paid by shippers. The shortage of tankers to move oil will create a bottleneck in the oil supply network at a time when rising demand has pushed prices to more than US$30 a barrel, analysts warn.
The cost of chartering a tanker to bring oil from the Persian Gulf to the US Gulf Coast has risen from about US$1 per barrel to almost US$2.50. It is estimated that the increase has added about 4 cents per gallon to the average US price of gasoline.
The crackdown after the Erika spill could not have come at a worse time for the tanker industry. It was already struggling with an aging fleet and shipyards barely able to build vessels fast enough to replace older ships as they were retired. A growing world thirst for oil also means more tankers are needed to move that oil to markets. The growing demands on a rapidly aging fleet are setting off alarms in the tanker industry and the energy industry overall.
If the International Maritime Organisation, an arm of the United Nations that oversees maritime
regulations, adopts stricter guidelines that require the retiring of ships at 25 years – rather than 30 – about 30 per cent of the world’s fleet will be taken out of service by 2005.
Meanwhile, the EU is proposing new agency as part of sea safety drive. The European Commission has proposed a range of measures aimed at improving shipping safety standards, including the creation of a European Maritime Safety Agency.
“With these proposals... we will be able to guarantee a European level of maritime safety in the future,” EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said during a news briefing.
In addition to the new agency which would check that ship inspection standards were being respected throughout the EU, the Commission proposed a new oil spill compensation fund, compulsory “black box” ship data recorders and stronger powers for national coastal authorities.