The Marshall Islands ship registry jumped on Saturday to the defence of a VLCC under its jurisdiction suspected by a Brazilian researcher of causing a massive oil spill in the Atlantic in July.
The 300,000-dwt Voyager I (built 2003) was identified as a possible source of the pollution in a 21 November public hearing in Brazil by Humberto Barbosa, coordinator of the Satellite Image Processing and Analysis Laboratory (Lapis) at the Federal University of Alagoas.
Representatives of the ship’s Marshall Island-based owners Sanibel Shiptrade promptly challenged Barbosa’s statements on 22 November, saying they constituted “false allegations… based on incomplete evidence”.
In a separate statement sent to TradeWinds on 23 November, a senior executive of the Marshall Islands Registry backed the owner’s argument that the Voyager I was in an entirely different part of the world when the oil spill happened.
“The Republic of the Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator confirms that the Pole Star Long Range Identification and Tracking data shows the vessel Voyager I (IMO 9233789) in the vicinity of Vadinar Terminal, India between 20 June and 21 August 2019,” the statement said.
Representatives of the NGM Energy-managed ship's owners have also cited satellite data, port documentation and statements by local agents in India as evidence that the ship was anchored off Gujarat during the entire period in question.
Contacted by TradeWinds to clarify what evidence he presented at the public senate hearing on the ship's alleged movements, Barbosa said his information came from MarineTraffic data.
TradeWinds has not been able to immediately corroborate that data.
More than 6,000 tonnes of crude have been washing up on hundreds of miles of Brazilian beaches since September. Brazilian authorities have said the crude they have collected is of Venezuelan origin and leaked from a ship in circumstances that remain unclear.
Brazilian officials including the country's president Jair Bolsonaro have since blamed a different vessel over the incident, Delta Tankers’ 164,000-dwt suezmax Bouboulina (built 2006). That ship’s owners, however, also vehemently dismissed any connection to it.
Authorities in Greece, under whose flag the Bouboulina is sailing, have said they found no evidence in the ship’s records that would suggest it was the source of the spill. Both Lapis and Skytruth, a US-based organization applying satellite imagery to promote environmental conservation, have also challenged the Brazilian authorities’ statements.
(This article has been updated since its original publication to include communication with Barbosa)
