-By LeN Diplomatic Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -16.Aug.2025, 4.40 AM) Singapore’s X-Press Feeders has launched an extraordinary attack on Sri Lanka’s highest court after it ordered the company to pay $1 billion in interim compensation within a year for the 2021 X-Press Pearl disaster — a sum the operator says defies due process, scapegoats its crew, and threatens to unsettle the global shipping industry.
The Supreme Court ruling, handed down last week, is being billed by Colombo as a milestone in environmental justice. For X-Press Feeders, it is a legal ambush. The company accuses the justices of effectively convicting the vessel’s master and local agents “before trials have concluded — in some cases before charges have even been filed.”
The master himself remains marooned in Sri Lanka under a travel ban that has lasted four-and-a-half years. Unable to work and separated from his family, he has offered to post the maximum penalty possible under his charges - but the court has refused.
“The judgment holds him and the agents as human collateral to ensure compliance,” the company said in a statement, adding that it was never given a proper chance to respond in court.
The X-Press Pearl — a brand-new 2,700 teu feeder vessel — sank off Colombo in June 2021 after a container carrying leaking nitric acid ignited. The fire tore through the ship, releasing hundreds of tonnes of plastic pellets (“nurdles”) into the sea, coating Sri Lankan beaches and triggering the country’s worst marine pollution disaster on record.
The incident became a political flashpoint. While the company has already paid more than $150 million for wreck removal, nurdle clean-up, and compensation to fishermen, environmental groups - and an embattled government - have pushed for record-breaking damages.
In its rebuttal, X-Press Feeders points to a chain of official oversights. Days before the blaze, Sri Lankan port inspectors raised “no alarm” about the leaking container. Earlier, ports in Qatar and India had refused to offload it.
The company also highlights testimony that the Marine Environment Protection Authority’s then-chair declined to order the vessel offshore when the fire risk became clear — a decision experts believe could have dramatically reduced environmental damage. Yet, the court assigned no liability to Sri Lankan authorities.
From the outset, Colombo has pursued one of the largest environmental claims in maritime history. Criminal proceedings were initiated in 2021 against the master, chief engineer, and local agents. Now, the $1bn interim order sets a precedent that X-Press Feeders warns “most shipping companies will struggle to meet.”
Industry insiders fear the ruling could deter carriers from calling at Colombo, a key transhipment hub, or drive up freight costs for Sri Lankan importers and exporters. For X-Press Feeders — which has served the port for over 40 years — the message is clear: “The economic needs of the country’s population must be balanced with environmental restoration, and international maritime law must be respected.”
The case has divided opinion. Environmentalists hail it as proof that polluters can be held to account, even when they fly foreign flags. Shipping lawyers, however, warn that the use of interim orders on this scale — before the conclusion of criminal or civil trials — risks undermining legal safeguards and could prompt retaliatory measures in other jurisdictions.
What is certain is that the X-Press Pearl has left more than nurdles in its wake: it has sparked a battle over the balance between environmental protection, judicial power, and the economic realities of global shipping. And with appeals almost inevitable, the fight between Colombo and Singapore’s maritime giant looks set to rage as long as the plastic pellets still wash ashore.
By LeN Diplomatic Correspondent
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by (2025-08-15 23:18:18)
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