Capsized Delphi oil tanker designated emergency situation

The capsized Delphi oil tanker off the coast of Odesa
was designated an emergency situation at the local level, enabling the task of
its liquidation to transfer into national state authority, according to the
respective state commission that met on July 26. “I’ll be frank. There is
little time for liquidation. The ship’s owner won’t relinquish his ownership
rights to the very end, dragging out the process,” said Maksym Kutsiy, the head
of the Odesa Regional Administration. He added, “Now the state is conducting
the liquidation, while the Seaport Administration is handling technical
matters. And the ship owner will be required to compensate this work and the
inflicted damages.”

The Delphi tanker capsized in November 2019 a few
hundred meters off the coastline near Odesa. It was found to be leaking oil and
to have violated laws requiring certificates of registration. On Apr. 8, the
owner assured the Prosecutor General’s Office that he would remove the tanker
at his own expense, which hasn’t happened. Two attempts have since been made –
on July 18 and 25 – to remove the capsized Delfi tanker, which continues to
leak oil into the Black Sea. Both attempts resulted in failure as the cables of
tugboats snapped and resulted. As of July 25, 100 sq. m. of the nearby surface
seawater was polluted as the water tested for 4.8 times the acceptable
concentration of hydrocarbons.

Zenon Zawada: The capsized Delphi tanker is the latest symbol of the ineffectiveness
of the Zelensky administration and the leadership vacuum in the country. This
situation illustrates just how poorly the Ukrainian bureaucracy operates,
having waiting for so many months to begin to remove an
object that has caused environmental damage. Its leaked oil forced the closure
of a nearby beach in late June. In a normal situation, an environmental
catastrophe would be immediate remedied, regardless of legal issues such as
ownership rights. Besides the environmental damage, Ukraine has taken the
latest hit to its image with this situation.