Greek authorities have found no evidence suggesting a ship under the country's jurisdiction was the cause of an oil spill in Brazil, a top government official told TradeWinds.
The Piraeus-based shipping ministry asked four major companies to provide comprehensive records of five Greek-flagged tankers, which Brazilian authorities suspected of spilling more than 4,000 tonnes of crude washing up on the country's northeastern coast.
Greek shipowners Delta Tankers, Maran Tankers, Minerva Marine and the Atehns-based management subsidiary of Belgian tanker giant Euronav had until 13 November to supply logs, records and detailed information on the movements of the vessels.
The data was duly collected and passed on to Brazilian authorities, the Greek official told TradeWinds on the sidelines of a conference in Thessaloniki.
Asked whether the records include evidence pointing to any of the five ships as the possible culprit, he said: “None whatsoever. One of them wasn't even carrying any cargo”.
The ships investigated were Delta Tankers’ 164,000-dwt Bouboulina (built 2006); Euronav’s 156,000-dwt Cap Pembroke (built 2018); Minerva Marine’s 104,600-dwt Minerva Alexandra (built 2000); and Maran Tankers’ 319,400-dwt Maran Apollo (built 2016) and 319,400-dwt Maran Libra (built 2014).
Targeting Bouboulina
Authorities in Brazil, including the President Jair Bolsonaro, zeroed in on the Bouboulina. They have cited satellite and marine traffic data, as well as an own analysis of the spilled crude showing it to be of Venezuelan origin — of the kind the Bouboulina was carrying.
Delta and the three other Greek companies summoned to provide records have said they would fully cooperate with the investigation, while denying the pollution had anything to do with their vessels.
Greek shipping companies are backed by a Brazilian researcher who also disputed the government’s findings. Humberto Barbosa, coordinator of the Satellite Image Processing and Analysis Laboratory (Lapis) at Alagoas Federal University (Ufal), has published two images from separate satellite systems that appear to show an oil spill off Brazil’s northeastern coast as early as 24 July — days before the Bouboulina passed the area.
Barbosa, who told TradeWinds his research is independent,also said he could find no evidence against any other of the four Greek tankers quizzed as part of the investigation.
The Brazilian researcher believes the pollution might have been caused instead by an unidentified ship sailing with its AIS transponder switched off. Other theories put forward by Greek shipping sources close to the matter point to an unreported barge sinking or an underwater leak from the seabed as a potential source of the spill its source.
