Federal Police launch coal ship spill probe 4/10/10

The Australian Federal Police has confirmed it has launched an investigation into the grounding of a Chinese coal carrier off the central Queensland coast.

Authorities are pumping oil out of the Shen Neng 1, which hit Douglas Shoal a week ago.

Yesterday it was revealed the Federal Police had been asked to consider mounting a criminal investigation into how the ship ran aground.

In a statement, the AFP says it has launched an investigation after a request by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Meanwhile, a maritime law expert says the Queensland Government is unlikely to be able to recoup the full clean-up bill associated with a Chinese coal carrier's accident on the Great Barrier Reef.

It has been a week since the Shen Neng 1 rammed into the Douglas Shoal.

So far, it has leaked around two tonnes of heavy fuel oil. Experts are pumping another thousand tonnes of oil off the coal carrier.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says it will be at least three days before attempts can be made to re-float the coal carrier.

"We won't see all of the oil off the ship until probably the end of the weekend at the earliest, and then there'll have to be considerable assessments taken of the vessel, empty of the oil before any flotation procedures occur," she said.

Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan says the Chinese company that owns the ship will be forced to meet the full costs associated with the grounding.

"Make no mistake - this company will pay a very substantial price for this incident," she said.

"Their ship was off course in very environmentally sensitive areas and they will pay the price."

Ms Bligh echoed the sentiments.

"Those costs will be recouped; we will be charging those costs to the insurance company of this vessel," she said.

"My aim is to make sure that there is no cost at all to the Queensland taxpayer as a result of this incident."

But according to Professor Nick Gaskell, an international maritime law expert at the University of Queensland, the State Government's tough talk might not be supported by law.

"The good news is that Australia joined an international convention last year called the Bunker Pollution Convention," he said.

"This allows states and others to claim compensation where you've got leakage of fuel oil carried aboard ordinary merchant ships.

"The Bunker Pollution Convention allows states to claim from the owners and the operators of the ship without having to prove fault. This is a no-fault compensation system."

But Professor Gaskell says that in exchange for the no-fault system, ship owners are entitled to a ceiling on damages claims.

"So the state has to prove what it's lost, but there is a maximum amount calculated according to the size of the ship," he said.

"And my calculations on the information available to me indicate that the maximum sum for this ship will be in the region of $23.5 million."

Professor Gaskell doubts that amount will cover the clean-up bill in an environmentally sensitive area like the Great Barrier Reef, particularly after last year's spill off Moreton Bay in Queensland left a clean-up and compensation bill of about $31 million, with the State Government only able to retrieve $23 million.