NORTH SEA PRODUCER

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Beaching in Bangladesh ruled as illegal

A court has ruled it was illegal for a the 'North Sea Producer' to be imported, beached and broken down on a notorious beach in Bangladesh. The FPSO, which served the MacCulloch field in the UK sector for more than 15 years, was found on Chittagong beach in 2016, where unskilled workers, including children, break down vessels manually. Before that, the vessel had been laid up in Middlesbrough and was cleared to leave the UK for further work in Nigeria. Investigations were still underway as to how it ended up in South-east Asia, 5,400 miles from its initial destination. The Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has now declared the move to scrap the ship there as illegal following action brought by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and its member group, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA). The court noted violations of international shipbreaking laws and passed rulings for stronger regulations, including ensuring no vessels are imported without verifiable certificates. The FPSO had been owned by North Sea Production Company, a joint venture between Maersk and Odebrecht and operated on ConocoPhillip’s MacCulloch oilfield. Maersk sold the vessel and said in 2016 it had been “cheated” over the final destination of the FPSO, with the buyer not living up to its obligations. The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was still investigating how the ship was illegally exported to Bangladesh. In 2017, Janata Steel, the company which beached it on Chittagong, was served an injunction by the Bangladesh Court on the breaking of the ship after high levels of radiation were detected. National agencies have since been directing the remaining breaking of the FPSO without Janata’s involvement. Report with photo: https://www.energyvoice.com/oilandgas/north-sea/212368/beaching-of-uk-north-sea-vessel-in-bangladesh-ruled-as-illegal/

SC in Chittagong bans scrapping toxic ship

The Chittagong Supreme Court has imposed a ban on wrecking or removing parts of a radioactive-waste carrying ship named North Sea Producer. A two-member bench of the High Court division headed by Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Selim announced the verdict on Monday. Chittagong’s Shitakunda-based ship breaking industry MS Janata Steel Corporation imported the ship for wrecking in August 2016. According to NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a Brussels-based international environmental agency, the ship is likely to be carrying a plenty of toxic wastes and a serious accident may take place during the shipwreck. The breaking of the ship off the coast of our country might pose a severe threat to health and environment. It is internationally recognised that such oil-tankers like North Sea Producer carry NORM (Natural Occurring Radioactive Materials) including asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), ozone-depleting substances (ODS), led, mercury, chromium, zinc and other radioactive substances. Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) filed a public interest litigation demanding a ban on the import, coasting and wreck of North Sea producer as the Janata Steel Corporation imported the ship violating country’s conventional law and the order of the court.

Dismantling of ship stopped due to radioactivity

The partially dismantled "North Sea Producer", still bethed at a Bangladesh ship breaking yard, was found to be radioactive and possibly dangerous for workers. Radioactive substances were found in inside pipes, with radioactive level above permissible. It was accumulated natural radioactivity of substances collected inside pipes during the years of processing crude oil on an oil field in North Sea. A scandal was brewing, after the Bangladeshi Supreme Court demanded from country’s environmental agency an explanation of how a dirty ship got a clean certificate allowing it to be dismantled in Bangladesh. Scrapping of the ship was suspended until completing investigatiosn and estimating possible hazards.