The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

FOCOL Holdings’ chairman yesterday conceded that cleaning-up Exuma’s 30,000-gallon oil spill would have been “a much greater struggle” if the wind and tide had taken the slick in a different direction.

Sir Franklyn Wilson told Tribune Business that “God’s grace has looked after the country again” after wind and tidal flows made it much easier to contain the diesel fuel to a small cove where it could be remediated and removed from the water.

“We are thankful to the heavenly Father for having created the climate in terms of the wind and tide to make this degree of progress possible in such a short period of time,” the BISX-listed petroleum supplier’s chair said. “If the tide and wind were different, it would take a lot longer and be a much greater struggle.

“This is a question of God’s grace looking after the country again. If the wind and tide were different it would be a different degree of challenge; slower progress and longer work.” The oil spill, said to have been caused by a “ruptured hose” that was transferring diesel duel from the MT Arabian vessel to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) storage tanks on Exuma, was largely contained and remediated within 24 hours.

Government officials said more than 20,000 gallons, or the majority of the spill, had already been removed from Exuma’s waters before press time, and Sir Franklyn produced a photograph of the scene - taken at 4.16pm yesterday - which showed far less oil than 24 hours previously.

He declined, though, to be drawn on which party - FOCOL’s Sun Oil subsidiary; D&T Shipping, the MT Arabian’s owner; BPL or a combination of two or three - will be held liable for the oil spill and have to finance the clean-up costs, as well as pay any fines or penalties that the Government has the ability to levy through the country’s environmental laws.

“Obviously the insurers and the lawyers, and on these things they like to get involved with it. That’s just the way life is,” Sir Franklyn said, again refusing to be drawn on how much the clean-up may cost. He did, though, suggest that the chain of events that led to the oil spill may never have been triggered if it was not for FOCOL’s own tanker, the M/T Tropic Breeze, being sunk on Christmas Eve 2021 when it was struck by a 207-foot super yacht.

If that had not occurred, he added, then Sun Oil would not have contracted D&T Shipping and its vessel to undertake delivery of BPL’s Exuma fuel supplies. “Human error is a reality,” Sir Franklyn said, “but I remind the general public that this incident has its genesis in December 2021 when a luxury yacht ran into our tanker and caused it to sink/

“That’s a very rare event. Outside of that there would be no need to engage a contractor to make the delivery, but that’s life. I’m not saying it would not have happened had we made the delivery ourselves. All we can do is recognise the facts as they are.”

Sir Franklyn said “the claims negotiations are pretty much settled” in relation to the M/T Tropic Breeze, and “we’re well on our way to replacing what we had with something that has even more resilience”. Stating that FOCOL Holdings’ finances were sufficiently strong to seek out a replacement vessel prior to receiving any insurance proceeds, he added: “We’re very active in the marketplace, and have some very competent brokers out there working on our behalf.

“We have some very competent and experienced brokers working to get us the right ship as fast as possible. The commitment to solving this issue, the commitment to building back better is not subject to us getting the insurance claim.”

Sir Franklyn also praised the co-operation between the Government and all private sector entities involved as critical to addressing the Exuma oil spill as rapidly as they did. 

Dexter Adderley, FOCOL’s president and chief executive, in confirming to the company’s directors that 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel had been lost into the sea, said in a briefing note: “The spill resulted from a ruptured hose during the discharge from the vessel, MT Arabian. The MT Arabian is a third party vessel owned by a company, D&T Shipping.”

Gregory Stuart, D&T Shipping’s president, did not return a Tribune Business call seeking comment despite a detailed message being left for him. However, Sir Franklyn added: “Mr Stuart has assured us that his company will do all it can to assist with the remediation effort. We, in turn, have assured him that Sun Oil will support the effort in every way we can.

“Mr Stuart has given us his assurance, and we are sure he will do the best he can and we are supporting it in every possible way. The owner of the Arabian recognises the challenge, and will give it their best. Every resource we have,all the resources we have available within our group, we are deploying. This, for us, is a significant thing.

“We are very concerned, very, very concerned. Environmental protection in the world of business today, responsible companies operate under the ESG mantra of environment, social and governance. The first one is environment. Given what FOCOL and Sun Oil see ourselves as being, we take this very seriously. Very, very seriously, being responsible and committed to the environment.”