Who is to blame for use of illegal fuel?
A Marseille court fined the ship's captain, but the focus should be on non-compliant companies, not the hapless seafarer caught in the middle
Add BT as a preferred sourceIN NOVEMBER last year, the US master of the cruise ship Azura, owned by Carnival Corp subsidiary P&O Cruises, was fined 100,000 euros (S$154,500) by a court in Marseilles.
The prosecution related to a spot check on the Azura in March 2018 when it was found to be using heavy fuel oil with 1.68 per cent sulphur content, just above the 1.50 per cent European limit. The 115,055 gross tonnage ship had taken on the bunkers at Barcelona before sailing to Marseilles.
The prosecutor in the case piled on the emotional language as if the marginal excess of sulphur discovered would really have made a difference to whether somebody lungs would be damaged or not. Franck Lagier said P&O "wanted to save money at the expense of everyone's lungs" and claimed the company had saved 21,000 euros by buying the higher sulphur content fuel.
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