05/08/2007 00:00
TW
0
Staff Reporter

PALMA
ISCOMAR, the shipping company which owns the ship Don Pedro which ran aground in the bay of Ibiza, will start to pay compensation for the damage caused by the sinking of the ship tomorrow.

The first phase of the payments will be to the boats which were in the Port of Ibiza at the time at which the ship sank.
According to company sources, the payment process for the compensation will be extended to include all the various types of damage.
The first group, which will be paid from tomorrow, concerns boats which “were affected by the oil spilling into the sea from the Don Pedro”, said the Iscomar sources.

With regard to the amount of the compensation to be paid, the insurance systems have established ratios of between 70 and 90 euros per metre of length for all the boats affected by the sinking.

The shipping company hopes that, with this payment, the owners of the boats will be able to pay for repairs and cleaning work made necessary by the effect of the oil on their hulls.

Iscomar said that it is following all the processes for reparation of damages caused by the sinking of its ship, as is established by law.
In addition to this, the company says it is willing to take on “as soon as possible” all the costs generated by the disaster, “although, of course, we have to follow the necessary administrative processes”, said the same sources.

With regard to the work being done by the divers from the Dutch company contracted to extract the oil from the wreck, Iscomar explained that the work is continuing to remove the oil which remains in the hold of the Don Pedro, which on Thursday amounted to 47 tons.

In this respect, the shipping company added that “it is not known exactly how long this extraction work will take”, as it has not been possible to establish precisely the severity of the leaks due to the movements of the ship.

Neither could they establish the duration of the work, as although “they are proceeding at a good pace”, any alteration in the weather or unforeseen problems in the underwater work could cause the extraction tasks to carry on longer than anticipated.